B&F: 2013

ABH: 71.024

Status: Vagrant. 

Distribution and Abundance: Rare.

Flight Period: Recorded in late November.

Record: 28 November 1998 Wellingborough (D. Larkin).

Observations: The upper image is of the actual moth that was taken in a garden light trap in Wellingborough in 1998.  The moth was photographed at the time of capture but the significance of the record was only realised recently when the retained slide was reviewed. Over the years there have been a number of extraordinary captures of moths that are not indigenous to Northamptonshire from this site.  I think that this record, along with some of the others, is explained by the garden being within a quarter of a mile of a flourishing garden centre. In this instance presumably the centre imports ornamental maples from other parts of Britain and thereby could have imported the earlier stages of the moth.

First Record: 1960, Kettlewell