Yorkshire Status: Abundant and widespread resident.

"Very abundant everywhere" said Porritt in 1883. The same could be said today. We receive well over 2,000 records per year, and the number of records seems to be stable. This is one of the "weed" species which appears in big numbers all over the county. In the past it was not uncommon to see counts in three figures, the maximum being 668 at Haxby on 21/7/1996, but large counts have been much less common in the last 20 years. If we look at the number of moths, as opposed to the number of records, there has been a worrying decline. Rothamsted data shows a similar reduction in numbers. It is easy to ignore some of these commoner species and to overlook what is happening. Small numbers of a second generation have been noted more often in the last few years. This is usually an easy moth to identify, though occasionally some odd variations turn up. Look for the black sunglasses when seen head-on, a feature not shared with Heart and Club or Turnip Moth.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Very common and widely distributed throughout all five vice-counties.

Recorded in 178 (89%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1846.
Last Recorded in 2024.
Additional Stats