Yorkshire Status: Local resident.

Gold Spot and Lempke's Gold Spot were only split in the 1960s, so it is difficult to know which species Porritt was referring to in his lists. Lempke's is much less common in the county than Gold Spot and univoltine (unlike Gold Spot) flying mostly in July and August. Gold Spot is comparatively unusual in July. It is rare in the south and east but commoner on the higher ground in the north and west. See Gold Spot for information on separating these two species. It has a different diet to its cousin, and likes wood small-reed, purple small-reed and various grasses, all of which tend to be commoner on the higher ground. Whilst identification is fairly straight forward in most cases, some individuals need dissection in order to be sure. Moths from new areas, particularly in the south and east of the county should be dissected. A substantial proportion of these turn out to be Gold Spot! This is very much a moth of northern England and Scotland. The main population to our south is in the Norfolk Broads.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Only relatively recently added to the County list, this species appears to be rather local but recorded from widely scattered areas. It may well be much more frequent than it appears since it is very difficult to distinguish from P. festucae (Linnaeus). However, there are at least four areas where all the Gold Spots which have been checked have proved to be festucae (Spurn, Sheffield, West Melton and Denaby lngs). This would indicate that it is definitely local to some extent. Although a larval foodplant is not given by Lorimer (MBGBI 10) or Skinner (1984), larvae have recently been discovered openly feeding on purple small-reed (J. Fenn per MRB). It might well be worthwhile to search for larvae on this foodplant at suitable sites in Yorkshire.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 113 (57%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1964. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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