Yorkshire Status: Very rare and very local resident.

This is a species of old oak woodland and is reported to be in decline. Populations are now confined to southern counties and are widely scattered. Porritt only knew it from "near York" in 1859 - this stems from an article in The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer where Mr W Helstrip offers "duplicates of the following insects taken during the past season near York". False Mocha appears at the bottom of a list of 19 species, most of them common apart from Small Purple-barred. The only records since then were one mentioned in Rutherford's lists of "a single specimen taken in Buttercrambe Woods in 1957" and one at Bishop Wood on 4/6/1980. Despite the comments below in Sutton and Beaumont, this could be part of an old resident population at Bishop Wood as it is an unlikely vagrant. Rutherford consided it to be a "quarry to be sought in Buttercrambe and other large oak woods". Targeting some of these oak woods in recent years has revealed several unexpected species. Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that False Mocha still exists in the county? Probably not, but you never know!

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: This species has only definitely been recorded twice in Yorkshire, from Buttercrambe Woods (VC62) in 1957 (YNU, 1970) and near York (VC61/62/64) in 1859 (Porritt, 1883-86). Recently a specimen was reported from Bishop Wood (VC64) on 4.6.1980 (per SMJ), but no other details are available. This must be considered a vagrant since it is a local southern species not usually found north of the Midlands.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 2 (1%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1957. Last Recorded in 1980. Additional Stats

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