Yorkshire Status: Very rare and very local. No recent record.
How times have changed. In 1883 Porritt wrote "very local but often abundant where it occurs, Barnsley, at New Park Spring Wood, Edlington Wood, Doncaster, where in some seasons it perfectly swarms, and as many as twenty can be counted sitting on the trunk of a single tree in June". It was rarer in some localities such as "Huddersfield, very rare" but was common at Richmond, and several other localities were mentioned. Following this it must have gone into quite a rapid decline, as the last Yorkshire specimen was seen in Edlington Wood in 1909.
This is now a moth of south-west England, south Wales, and Kent and Sussex, though there are odd outlying populations such as the Morecambe Bay area. It is a woodland species, the larvae feeding on various broadleaved trees. If you are the sort of person who backs the 100-1 outsider in the Grand National, you might want to put a bet on this species expanding and recolonising. It's distribution is not dissimilar to that of Devon Carpet a few years ago.
Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Not recorded since 1909 when it was taken in Edlington Wood (VC63), previously the main County locality (YNU, 1970).
Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.
Recorded in 8 (4%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1883. Last Recorded in 1909. Additional Stats
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