Yorkshire Status: Rare and local resident.

This attractive day-flying species is not common in Yorkshire. The larvae feed on wood sage in open wooded areas in the north-west of the county. We have had a healthy number of records in recent years and records are in a broad band running from the edge of Airedale in the south almost to the Tees in the north. Porritt said is was "not common" in 1883 but listed several sites in the county where it is no longer present, so it must have been more widespread in the past. Most of our records come from the Grass Wood area ("common" here said Porritt) and woodland to the west of Richmond, though other areas where it undoubtedly occurs are less thoroughly monitored. The only other place it has cropped up is Thorne Moors where there are two rather odd records from the 1970s, a long way from other sites. It is a single-brooded species flying in May and June, though there was an extremely odd (but confirmed) record on 2/9/2022 near Richmond. This species is not meant to be double-brooded in any part of its range.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Formerly confined to Grass Wood (VC64). This species has suddenly appeared in several new localities in North Yorkshire and being such an unmistakable day-flying moth it is unlikely to have previously been overlooked. It has been recorded from one site in the south of VC63 in recent years. The source of this colony is possibly the Derbyshire dales.

Recorded in 19 (10%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1880. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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