Yorkshire Status: Local resident.

In 1883 Porritt labelled this moth as "a very local species with us" and listed records from Richmond and Scarborough, and followed this in 1904 with records from Glaisdale and Ingleby Greenhow. None were seen for many years after that, and Rutherford's lists of 1970 said "this species does not appear to occur in the county now, and as other species are frequently confused with it, it seems possible that it never did". In hindsight however, Porritt will have been correct, as it still occurs in the areas he mentions and probably always has done.

It is a rather local species of upland wooded areas with a curiously disjunct distribution across the country. There are no records from VC63 and only a single record from VC61, of a wandering individual at Spurn in 2015, so many recorders will have never seen one. Our records come from areas in the north of the county. In some sites, it can be remarkably common, particularly in wooded parts of the western Dales, eg 77 at Keld on 24.7.2009 (where it was the commonest moth in the traps) and 71 at Ballowfields/Ox Close on 6.8.2010. Counts are lower at its VC62 sites. Strangely it has never been seen over the border in Lancashire, though there are records from Cumbria. It was formerly classed as a National BAP species but was taken off the list when numbers increased. The populations in Yorkshire appear to be stable.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: A very local species in the North of England and only doubtfully recorded before 1967 since there were no specimens available for examination. This species was definitely added to the County list in 1967 (YNU, 1970) and has now been found in several localities.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 42 (21%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1883. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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