Yorkshire Status: Very rare and very local resident.

This rare species is resident in the Brecks of East Anglia and on the Suffolk coast. Moths elsewhere are usually classed as migrants. Whether it has ever been resident in the county is open to conjecture, but it is highly probable it once occurred at Strensall Common. In 1883, Porritt noted "the only claim this species has to appear in our county list is based upon the following records : - A specimen was taken at Stockton-in-the-Forest by Mr Baines, and I had another specimen taken by Mr Baines" (TH Allis, Entolologist's Wkly Intell., 1859); "a specimen was taken by Mr Birks near York, July 15th 1859" Entomologist's Wkly Intell. 6:130; and Entolomologist's Annu., 1860, p141). Going back to the original reference, "near York" almost certainly refers to Strensall Common as Mr Birks notes "I had the good fortune whilst in pursuit of E. vespertaria to catch a fine example ..." - so he was chasing Dark Bordered Beauty and found something even better! The only recent record was from Spurn on 7.8.2003. This is likely to have been a migrant as it is a long way for a wandering moth to travel from the Norfolk/Suffolk Border.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Not recorded since Porritt (1883-86, 1904). In Porritt's main list (1881-86) there were only two records, both from VC62 in 1858/59. The nearest known recent record is from Derbyshire in 1985 (Harrison & Sterling, 1986). Skinner (in litt. 1989) has drawn attention to Allis (1859) and Birks (1859) which in total refer to three specimens from the Strensall Common area.

Recorded in 2 (1%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1859. Last Recorded in 2003. Additional Stats

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