Yorkshire Status: Abundant and widespread resident.

"Common everywhere" wrote Porritt in 1883. That would appear to be an understatement nowadays, as it is extremely common and widespread all across the county, though numbers do not begin to approach those seen with Large Yellow Underwing. Although the number of records has been stable for many years, large counts are certainly not as common as they used to be. Catches of over 100 at a time used to be fairly common, especially at Spurn but there have been no three-figure counts since 2008. This is another aestivating species, emerging in June/July, hiding during the hottest weather, and coming out in numbers when temperatures start to cool a little, and it is quite common to see good numbers on quite chilly August nights. Also, along with other aestivating species, it is common to see a pile of wings at Long-eared Bat roosts.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Recorded from all five vice-counties in all habitat types and often frequent to common. In VC61 larvae have often been found on great hairy willow-herb in autumn and on small hawthorn bushes and other scrub in spring, but have also been found on nettle among other plants (PQW pers. comm.).

Recorded in 173 (87%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1846.
Last Recorded in 2024.
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