Yorkshire Status: Rare and very local resident.

Large Nutmeg must have been more common and widespread in the past. The Atlas shows old dots as far north as the south of Scotland, and Porritt in 1883 was able to list several sites in Yorkshire where it occurred. It suffered a severe decline but managed to hang on in Yorkshire and became quite regular at Spurn between 1970 and 1990 with some healthy counts, with occasional moths at other sites in the south and west of the county. It then seemed to disappear and we wrote on the old web site in 2011 "this species now seems to be extinct in the county ... it might yet reappear". This was a good prediction as a build up in counties to our south saw it appear back in Yorkshire in 2012. It has appeared in most years since then, and there were six records in both 2022 and 2023 so it appears that it is now resident in VC61 and the east of VC63.

This is a species of calcareous grassland. It can be mistaken for other Apamea species such as Dusky Brocade or Rustic Shoulder-knot but is reasonably distinctive when fresh.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: A very local species in northern England. The Yorkshire headquarters of this species is at Spurn (VC61) but there are occasional inland reports.

Recorded in 29 (15%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1883. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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