General comments:
Widespread but rather local resident.

First report is from Datchworth (Herts) in 1969, then there are no further records until 1994, when Charles Watson caught one in his garden in Bishops Stortford on 28th September 1994. Motivated by this report I searched for and found larvae in reedmace stems the following year at Rushey Mead (on the North Essex side of the River Stort) and in Hertfordshire at Sawbridgeworth Marsh, four kilometres to the south, where it still thrives. It is currently established as a resident in the Stort and Lea Valleys. Commencing in 2003, the moth started to extend its range was was found in a wide range of distant sites - not all of which contained suitable breeding habitat. In 2023, it is a widespread but scattered resident and is likely to be present in ditches, ponds and other features where Typha latifolia is present. The spread may have been northwards, via the Lea and then Stort valleys, as the last remnants of Thames Marsh wetland habitat were gradually whittled away by the development of the London Docklands region from about the 1980s onwards, but has undoubtedly been bolstered by artificial introductions of the foodplant as part of various habitat creation schemes.

Recorded in 26 (63%) of 41 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1969. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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