Cornish Biodiversity Network - Supporting Wildlife Recording
The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Recorded in Europe from Denmark, France, Germany, Austria and the former
Czechoslovakia (Heath & Emmet, 1985) and also in Sweden (Heckford, 1984), but known in Britain only in Cornwall.
Regional Distribution
Restricted in Britain to west Cornwall (St Agnes area), where it was first found in 1983 (Heckford, 1984) where its foodplant Hairy Green-weed Genista pilosa grows on cliffs and in maritime heathlands. This plant is still widespread in Cornwall on The Lizard and the north coast around St. Agnes (Margetts & David, 1981), but the moth has not been found on the Lizard despite careful searching. In Cornwall, the moth occurs in three coastal localities near St. Agnes and Porthtowan. Genista pilosa also occurs in Wales and East Sussex (Stace, 1991), but there are no records of the moth at these places.
Habitat & Ecology
Confined to maritime situations where its foodplant grows. Bivoltine.
Threats
None known. The foodplant is occasionally threatened by heath fires.
Conservation
Protection of habitat; sites on protected nature reserves.
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.