Yorkshire Status: Very rare and very local resident.

In 1883 Porritt said "this fine species is in some seasons not uncommon at Bishop Wood, near Selby. It has not been recorded from elsewhere in the county". This must have been the most northerly site in the country, the nearest records being in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire where it is still present. It has not been seen at Bishop Wood since then, however it reappeared in Yorkshire in 2010 at Hatfield Moor. The next record was from Thorne Moor in 2015, and it is evidently doing well at this site as there have been several records since, with a maximum of seven trapped on 22/6/2023. There have been no records anywhere else. This is very much, as its name suggests, a moth of oak woodland and it looks like a Willow Beauty on steroids. The only moth you are likely to confuse it with is Pale Oak Beauty - the sizes can overlap.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Not recorded since Porritt (1883-86) when it was reported to be not uncommon at Bishop Wood (VC64) in some seasons. There is also one specimen labelled 'Sheffield' in the Sheldon collection (Garland, 1979) but he collected from a large area under this label and so we cannot be sure whether this is a Yorkshire specimen. It is still occasionally taken in Lincolnshire (Duddington & Johnson, 1983) and is well established in the Sherwood Forest area of Nottinghamshire (Bee, 1988).

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 3 (2%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1883.
Last Recorded in 2023.
Additional Stats