This species languishes in Appendix B of our county list as an unconfirmed record.

Barrett in The Lepidoptera of the British Islands Volume 2, 1895 reports as follows:

"Thirty years ago the late Mr E. G. Baldwin recorded the capture of specimens of the nativity of which he felt satisfied as follows. "I have a specimen which was given to me by Mr S. Jessop of Rawmarsh. The insect was taken twenty years ago in Tinsley Park, between Rotherham and Sheffield by a man named Siddall, who did not know the value of the moth he had captured. Mr Jessop informs me that he met him early in the morning and asked what he had in his box, which being opened revealed four or five specimens of vau-nigrum (at the time to be considered by them to be only S. salicis.) They were pinned with large common pins and some were alive, not having been killed by the pinch they had received under the thorax." However it may have been fifty years ago, there is no reason to believe that this species has at any more recent period inhabited this country."

This record is mentioned in Skinner, Waring et al, MBGBI etc. It does not however appear in Porritt's lists. The reprint of the lists says "Porritt may have been unaware of these records because his usual practice in regard to published records was to give details, even of doubtful records, and express his reservations.

Sutton and Beaumont suggest there were other records - "there are several references to specimens of this moth from near Sheffield in the early nineteenth century", but the details seem elusive.

The location of any specimen is long gone, and we have no way of verifying this saga, but it seems very odd to me that Mr Siddall should have "four or five specimens" of what was, and is still, an incredibly rare species.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 1 (1%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1845. Last Recorded in 1845. Additional Stats

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