Season (Adult / Immature):
National Status: Common
Local Status: Uncommon and thinly distributed and restricted resident.
Local Record: Grade 2 See here for explanation
Flight time: One generation Mar-mid May.
Foodplant: Sallows, birches, Alder and Honeysuckle.
|Year first recorded||1955||2007||1984||1955|
|Year last recorded||2011||2007||2011||2011|
|Number of records||360||1||70||862|
|Number of individuals||1102||6||190||2596|
For the region, we have a total of 862 records from 218 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1955.
For further information refer UK Moths.
Davey, P., 2009: A widespread species in Britain, the larva feeding on birch (Betula spp.), sallow (Salix spp.), alder (Alnus spp.) and honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.). In Dorset, the moth is common amongst the birch/heather terrain on sandy soil, mature birch growing in woodland on chalky soil in north-east Dorset, and in the valley swamps of Powerstock Common where alder is dominant. The moth is seldom encountered well away from these core heathland and wetland habitat types.