Distribution and Abundance: Fairly common.

Primary Habitat: General occurrence.

Flight Period: Single brooded in July and August.

Observations: In terms of post 1980 records and distribution the species is common, but seems to have become less so in more recent years. For several years now I have not seen the colourful caterpillars that used to be such a familiar sight in May and June feeding in the hawthorn hedges locally. Light trap records from a Wellingborough garden in the 1950’s show an annual average of thirty-two moths trapped with an incidental ratio of less than one per cent of females attracted. These figures are well in excess of those achieved currently with most sites only seeing the moth in very small numbers.

L.O.N.: 1907. Almost everywhere. Very common.

First Record: 1842, Clark.