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Dark Bordered Beauty
Epione vespertaria (Linnaeus, 1767)
Geometridae: Ennominae
1908 / 70.228
Photo © Damian Money,  Strensall Common, VC62 - male

Similar Yorkshire Species
Bordered Beauty
Epione repandaria
Forewing: 12-14mm.
Flight: July - Aug.
Foodplant:   Creeping Willow, Aspen and birches
Red List: Endangered (EN)
GB Status: Nationally Rare
Former Status: Red Data Book
Verification Grade:  Adult: 3

Yorkshire Status: Scarce and very local resident.

A very nice history of Dark Bordered Beauty in Yorkshire can be found in the YNU's "100 species project" where Peter Mayhew's account can be found at More Info . This lovely and extremely important species is feature as the logo for our web site and you will see it sitting proudly at the top right corner of each page. The population remains low and under threat. Since Peter wrote this account, the situation has not improved. In 2023 his summary was:

Numbers on the Strensall monitoring transect showed a slight improvement with 14 moths seen in total, and numbers per walk doubling on 2022 to 2.8; these are still concerningly low numbers. Elsewhere numbers were down: not a single moth was seen in the location that provided the best numbers last year, and numbers were lower in the two other regular locations. However, weather conditions were poor for monitoring. Over winter, working parties again planted out numerous Creeping Willows into known locations for the moth and by summer these had generally put on good growth. We must hope the moth responds. The Scottish captive breeding and release project is doing well, as you may have seen on the news, and the know-how can hopefully be put to use for Yorkshire moths in future.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Strensall Common (VC62) is a nationally famous site for this species and here its status has been charted from 1894 to the present by the York and District Field Naturalists' Society (JP pers. comm.). With probably only one other English site and a few in Scotland it is heartening that it is still plentiful at Strensall, with records right up to 1988.

Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 5 (3%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1858.
Last Recorded in 2023.
Additional Stats

Latest 5 Records
Date#VC10k Area
21/07/2023162SE65 - York (E)
15/07/2023362SE66 - Strensall
14/07/2023362SE66 - Strensall
14/07/2023762SE66 - Strensall
12/07/2023662SE66 - Strensall
Further info: Epione vespertaria
 
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