Yorkshire Status: Local resident.

Scarce Prominent was first seen in Yorkshire in 1968 at Ampleforth. Surprisingly it was unknown to Porritt though it could well have always been present in the county. It may have been a difficult species to detect before the widespread use of light traps, and all our records are of moths taken at light. The situation is similar to our north, and in Durham, apart from a moth found in 1913 it was not seen until 1962. It is a moth of long-established birch woodland and has a rather scattered population across the country. Most of our records come from VC62, though there is a smaller population in the south of VC63 with is continuous with moths in Nottinghamshire. Numbers are probably stable though we never receive a lot of records. In good birch woodland in VC62, counts can sometimes reach double figures. Unlike most Prominents, it just has a spring generation.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: First recorded at Ampleforth (VC62) on 5.5.1968 by S. L. Sutton (Jackson, 1969), this species may have always been present in the old birch woodland along the southern scarp of the North York Moors, but if so it certainly seems to have spread in the last few years.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 23 (12%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1968. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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