B&F: 2211

ABH: 73.050

Status: Unknown.

Distribution and Abundance: Rare - no modern records

Primary Habitat: Gardens.

Flight Period: Single brooded in July.

Records: 27 July 1984 and 2 August 1993 Northampton
(P. Sharpe).    

Observations: The Northampton moths were taken in a garden m.v. light trap in Kingsthorpe with two in 1984 and a singleton in 1993. Four singletons were recorded during the 1950’s in a Wellingborough garden m.v. light trap on the following dates, 20 July 1951, 21 July 1952, 20 July 1954 and 22 August 1954. The record at SP86 was taken from a Biological Record Centre card and is dated 1900 with recorder and locality unknown. The 1882 record was taken from a systematic classification of the lepidoptera that have occurred in the vicinity of Northampton. J. Northampt. nat. Hist. Soc. p.247 by Hull, W. & Tomalin, H. F., 1882-84. The locality is given as Whittlebury Forest. In 1993 a moth was trapped at Old Fletton near to the county border and several larvae were found nearby in that year and the following year feeding on wormwood.  This suggests that the species may have also colonised any wormwood growing nearby in Northamptonshire and could still be a lead to further records for the county.

L.O.N.: Unrecorded.

First Record: 1882, Hull & Tomalin.