General comments
Extinct resident.

Nationally, this moth has declined and is now restricted to the Breckland in the south-east and the Hampshire/Surrey/Wiltshire heathlands in the south.

Foster (1916) noted that 'This species occurs commonly on Royston Heath'. Royston Heath, also known today as Therfield Heath, is in fact a chalk downland site, not a heathland at all. Phil Jenner has in his collection several specimens collected there in 1926 by B. Swift and rumours abound that the moth persisted here as late as the 1970s, though there are no firm records. Griffith (1884) had earlier reported it from the Sandridge area; within his definition of that very large area there is no chalkland habitat although areas of acid grassland might then have reflected the habitat of the moth in the Breckland district of Norfolk and Suffolk. Bell (1961) records an example taken by Clifford Craufurd during 1959 at Bishops Stortford. Bishops Stortford seems an extremely improbable locality, but Craufurd was a first rate lepidopterist and there was at that time a small chalk exposure in a quarry along the Farnham Road (still referred to today as the Bishops Stortford Lime Pit) and this is only about a mile across then open fields from where Craufurd lived. The only other Hertfordshire record is from Borehamwood, where one was caught by Gaston Prior in 1970.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 5 (12%) of 41 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1890. Last Recorded in 1970. Additional Stats

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