Yorkshire Status: Rare and very local resident.

Alder Kitten must have been more widespread in the past. Porritt listed it from several sites, mostly in the north-east of the county. These were (and still are) the most northerly records in the Atlas. "Mr T Wilkinson from Scarborough used to take it in some numbers" he said in 1883, and followed it up in 1907 with "since Mr Wilkinson's death, no-one has been able to find it in Scarborough". The range must have contracted considerably after this time though it carried on being recorded in counties to our south and west. There was then some range expansion and it reappeared in Yorkshire in the extreme west of VC64 in 1991. The first evidence of spread to VC63 came in 1996. Since then it has been recorded regularly in the extreme south and west, and in the last few years the expansion has gathered pace. A moth was seen far to the east at Austerfield in 2022, and one reaches Little Preston in the east of VC64 in 2023. It is "on the move" and it is anyone's guess where it will turn up next. This is the easiest of the three Kitten species to identify, and unlike the other two, it just has a single brood.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Not recorded since Porritt (1883-86). This species used to occur quite widely in VC62 and at odd sites elsewhere. It still occurs at several sites in Derbyshire (VC57) some of which are quite near the Yorkshire border (Harrison & Sterling, 1986).

Recorded in 26 (13%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1857. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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