Yorkshire Status: Rare and very local resident.

This is not a common moth in Yorkshire. When we have deleted all the "Peacocks" on iRecord (as the photo shows a butterfly) we are left with very few records indeed. It is a moth of scrubby areas with birch with separate populations in the south-east of England and in Scotland where it is spreading. There was a small flush of records in the late 1970s and into the 1990s and it looked as if it was going to properly colonise the county but then it rather fizzled out. In the last few years there have been a few records at Spurn so perhaps it is having another bash at colonising, and in 2019 it also appeared at Wykeham Causeway in VC62. Take care not to confuse it with the much commoner (in Yorkshire) Sharp-angled Peacock. Worn moths can be tricky.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: This species was first taken in Yorkshire at MV light at Dalby Forest, near Pickering (VC62) on 27 August 1977 by P. Q. Winter and S. M. Jackson. The next specimen to appear was taken near the coast in VC61 in 1983 and two more specimens have now been taken in 1987.

Recorded in 14 (7%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1977. Last Recorded in 2022. Additional Stats

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