B&F: 2137

ABH: 73.350

Status: Migrant.

Distribution and Abundance: Irregular.

Primary Habitat: General occurrence.

Flight Period: Most records are in August.

Observations: Writing in the 1960’s in his unpublished paper, “The Lepidoptera of Castor Hanglands and Ailsworth Heath 1911 – 1960,” R. E. M. Pilcher stated that the species was occasional on the reserve. This effectively sums up the incidence of the moths presence in the county. The pattern that emerges is a lack of records for many years usually followed by a year in which there are more than single sightings. Instances of these “good” migration years are as follows :- 1953 -  3 at Wellingborough
1973 -  3 at Broughton and 1 at Grafton Park Wood
1995 -  4 at Salcey Forest, 1 at Northampton and 1 at Corby.
Generally these migrations do not seem to occur at times of high migrant activity of other species to the county, however in the high migration year of 2006 twelve 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. Several moths were seen in late August 2007 but in nowhere near the numbers for 2006 and none have been seen in the three years to 2010.

L.O.N.: 1909. Weekley Hall Wood. Once at sugar.

First Record: 1882, Hull & Tomalin.