Yorkshire Status: Rare and local resident on the verge of extinction.

This species was unknown to Porritt as at that time it was confined to southern coastal habitats. After the war its foodplant became more common on bombed sites and other disturbed areas and the moth spread as far north as south Yorkshire which was colonised in the 1950s. It has never been common in the county with scattered records mostly in VC63 and the south of VC64 but since 2000 it has become rarer with very few reported. The distribution in the rest of England is very patchy and fragmented and it has been lost from many of its old sites. It is probably declining everywhere. It is a moth of bare areas, quarries, slag heaps and other areas where its foodplant, Wormwood grows. It will apparently also use Mugwort which is a much commoner plant in Yorkshire, but if this was an adequate substitute for Wormwood, one would expect the moth to be commoner. The current trend of building on brownfield sites is not helping this species. With just single records in 2021 and 22, and no records at all in 2023, it is easy to be pessimistic, but it has disappeared for three or four years before so all might not be lost.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: There have been very few records of this species since the late 1960s when it appeared to become quite common on slag heaps and waste ground, moving north as its foodplant colonised disturbed road verges on the A1. Whether these areas are being tidied-up or whether the moth is decreasing for other reasons is unclear.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 28 (14%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1950. Last Recorded in 2022. Additional Stats

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