Yorkshire Status: Rare and very local resident.

This species is well named. It was scarce in Porritt's time and it is interesting to quote him from 1883 - "our county has produced the only two specimens of this species which have yet been taken in Britain. Mr W Prest detected a specimen in the boxes of Mr Buck, who took it on Artemisia at Spurn about 1970. The other specimen was taken on waste ground near Hull in June 1873 by Mr Sawyer, and is now I believe in the collection of Mr Philip B Mason, FLS, of Burton-on-Trent." Moths must have been found elsewhere soon afterwards as in 1907 he replaces "the only two specimens" with "the first two specimens". The Spurn colony persisted for many years and in the 1950s larvae were "fairly common" on sea wormwood. Records continued for some time after but became less frequent and the last moth was seen in 1997. It seems almost certain that the moth is now extinct in Yorkshire. The only colonies anywhere in the country now are on the north Norfolk coast as it is probably also extinct in Lincolnshire. If you did have the good luck to come across one, you would immediately realise it was something unusual. The wings seem "stretched out" (hence extensaria) with a straight costa and rather attractive oblique bands.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: This is a rare species nationally with few British localities. The northernmost colony was found at Spurn (VC61) where it was common, the larvae feeding on sea wormwood (Sutton & Spence, 1974a). It seemed to disappear in 1979 and extensive searches for larvae 1985-87 yielded no results. However, singles were again recorded on 29 June and 18 July 1988 so it may still be present here or in some nearby locality.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 2 (1%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1870. Last Recorded in 1997. Additional Stats

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