B&F: 2135

ABH: 73.356

Status: Resident, vagrant or accidental.

Distribution and Abundance: Rare

Record: 26 August 2003 Northampton (P. Sharpe) and 8 September 2007 Luddington-in-the-Brook (S. Brayshaw).

Observations: The source of the Northampton record is uncertain. The food plant of the species is heather and although almost entirely absent from the county still occurs sparsely on Harlestone Heath not too far away from where the moth was taken. It could have wandered from this site, been a vagrant/accidental from further afield or have been imported with garden heathers. The source of the second recent record from Luddington-in the Brook is equally uncertain. There is an earlier record by H. F. Tebbs from Castor Hanglands in 1949. As this is dated June it is presumably of a caterpillar found on the heather that used to occur on the reserve.

First Record: 1949, Tebbs.