General comments: Widespread resident and immigrant.
Although known as an immigrant to Britain as long ago as 1879, there were only temporarily resident populations on the south coast until 1949 when the moth suddenly moved inland and became established in Surrey. Since then it has steadily moved northwards and is now a familiar resident in southern Britain, though still boosted by primary immigrants in the autumn. The first Hertfordshire record was at Berkhamsted, where one was seen by J. H. Bell in 1945. Our next was at Welwyn, one in 1953 (D. A. B. Macnicol), then at Bushey, one on 3rd August 1965 (Barry Goater), which deWorms commented upon with the words "... a rare insect in this part of the [London] area". At Totteridge, it was noted as increasing greatly during the 1970s, with the second generation especially abundant in 1978, but "after the hard winter, generation 1 was not seen and only about 50 in all of gen. 2 came to the trap" (Ian Lorimer). Presumably the second generation examples were immigrants? Lorimer noted 100 at light in his Totteridge garden on 25th August 1976, the drought year, and in that year further range expansions were noted by the moth in Britain. Today, the moth is resident everywhere and it is inevitably hard to separate residents from immigrant examples.
Recorded in 36 (88%) of 41 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1930. Last Recorded in 2024. Additional Stats
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