Season (Adult / Immature):
National Status: Local
Local Status: Uncommon and thinly distributed resident.
Local Record: Grade 2 See here for explanation
Flight time: Jun-Jul.
Foodplant: Herbaceous plants, including Common Comfrey, Hemp-agrimony, Stinging Nettle, Bramble, Honeysuckle and Meadowsweet.
|Year first recorded||1905||1994||1905|
|Year last recorded||2011||2011||2011|
|Number of records||293||8||602|
|Number of individuals||1132||11||2286|
For the region, we have a total of 602 records from 232 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1905.
For further information refer UK Moths.
Davey, P., 2009: A local and decreasing species confined to the south-west corner of Britain and a few coastal sites in east Kent, the larva feeding on many plants, shrubs and trees. The adult tends to fly in sunshine, but is occasionally active on the warmest summer nights when it is readily attracted to light traps. In Dorset, the moth is resident in a range of different biotypes. It is locally common within unimproved water meadows, edges of rivers, streams and ditches, wet woods and occasionally on dry verges or field edges where its primary foodplant common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) abounds. Scattered colonies also occur on chalky soil where hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) or privet (Ligustrum vulgare) hosts the caterpillar. Larvae have been found feeding on a range of different plants. Unusual food sources include: a final instar larva eating its way through a large spongy oak gall at Stubhampton Bottom, on 19 May 2002, and, more than one hundred larvae feeding on the blossom of gorse (Ulex spp.) on Knowle Hill near Corfe Castle on 7 April 1999 (P Davey).