B&F: 1972

ABH: 69.001

Status: Migrant.

Distribution and Abundance: Irregular.

Primary Habitat: General occurrence.

Flight Period: Most records are in September.

Records: 21 & 24 September 2003 Farthingstone (P. Egerton), 25 September 2003 Yardley Chase (S. Brayshaw), 25 September 2000 Pitsford Water (P. Horsnail) and 18 July 1993  Nassington (J. Ward).        

Observations: Recorded annually in the Kettering area in the 1940’s, peaking in 1945 with moths reported on 8 April 1945 and from 4 September 1945 to 1 October 1945. Unfortunately actual numbers of moths were not given, but it looks as if more than ten moths were seen. I have been unable to find any records of the larva being found in the county, but as a boy can remember having been shown one of the dark form that was found locally feeding on bindweed. In 2003 six moths were recorded from 23 August to 25 September. In the high migration year of 2006 twenty-two examples of this species were recorded in the county greatly increasing the mapped distribution. At this stage it is not known to what extent this is a pattern for the future and the overall effect on the scarcity of the moth. No moths were reported as being seen in 2007 with small numbers in 2008 and 2009.

L.O.N.: 1904. Castle Ashby, Kettering, Woodford. Not common but quite a number of records.

First Record: 1880, Hull & Tomalin.