Eupithecia haworthiata (Doubleday, 1856)

Description: Wingspan 12-14 mm. Forewings well-rounded and normally pale grey with dark crosslines and broader pale bands, which are quite visible on fresh specimens. The abdomen has a slight reddish tinge which helps separate it from other closely related species. Hindwings similar in appearance.

Similar Species: Lead-coloured Pug E. plumbeolata and Valerian Pug E. valeriantata, but neither of these have a reddish tinge to the base of the abdomen. The former also has an earlier flight period.

Key Identification Features:

• Rounded forewings
• Pale bands of forewings

Sets:

Flight Period: End of June to late July. Skinner gives June and July as the normal flight period in Britain.

Status: Scarce, with recent records from Murlough National Nature Reserve, Down, Aughinlig, Tyrone and Portrush, Antrim. There are old records from Favour Royal and Stewartstown in Tyrone.

Ecology: Possibility more widespread in areas where its foodplant occurs. Adults are attracted to light in small numbers and can occasionally be disturbed from its foodplant during the day. The larvae feed during July and August on Traveller's Joy Clematis vitalba. It overwinters as a pupa.

World Distribution: Eurasiatic; Common and widespread across much of Europe as far east as China.

Bradley & Fletcher number: 1813 Agassiz number: 70.146

Additional information:

UK Moths account

Caterpillar: