Yorkshire Status: Very rare resident or wanderer

This is a species of damp woodland in western parts of the country. It is extremely unusual to find it in Yorkshire. We receive a surprising number of records, but almost without exception these turn out to be Double Square-spot. The first record was from Whirlow, near Sheffield, on 24/7/1955. This is mentioned in Rutherford's lists and appears to be reliable. Rutherford also mentioned another "Sheffield" specimen in 1950, but this seems to have been over the boundary in VC57. In 1971, one was taken in the Rothamsted trap at Malham Tarn, though Sutton and Beaumont (below) say it "cannot now be verified". On 25/7/2011, one was trapped at Colt Park in the west of VC64, and verified by dissection. Two such records close to each other are suggestive of a small resident population, though they could be wandering moths, as it is resident to the west in north Lancashire and south Cumbria. So if you do catch something that looks like this species, please keep it! In the hand it does look different from Double Square-spot, and could almost be mistaken for Square-spotted Clay, or even Setaceous Hebrew Character if you were having a bad day. It has a more slender appearance than Double Square-spot, as the wings are wrapped more tightly. It is usually a darker and more purple colour, and the hindwings are paler.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: This species was not first taken in 1950, as previously stated (YNU, 1970), since this first specimen was from Totley in VC57 (Garland, 1979). However, the 1955 record was from Whirlow, VC63 and therefore is valid. There is one recent record which cannot now be verified.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 3 (2%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1955. Last Recorded in 2011. Additional Stats

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