B&F: 2061

ABH: 72.019

Status: Resident.

Distribution and Abundance: Common.

Primary Habitat: General Occurrence.

Flight Period: Single brooded in June and July.

Observations: Historically this species seems to have been rather more common than its congener the White Ermine (S. lubricipeda), however in more recent times the White Ermine generally appears to be the more common of the two species. The main exception to this being in gardens where the Buff Ermine sometimes can be particularly plentiful as in a Northampton garden in 2002 when 184 examples were taken at m.v. light. As a contrast, the Fineshade woodland Rothamsted trap only attracted twenty-nine examples of the moth over seven years in the 1990’s. Although variable, extreme forms do not seem to have been noted in the county.

L.O.N.: 1907. Everywhere. Very common.

First Record: 1842, Clark.