Yorkshire Status: Scarce and thinly distributed or restricted resident.

Broad-barred White has never been a common species in Yorkshire. In 1883, Porritt was only able to comment "Mr Dobree says it occurs at Beverley, but is scarce. We have no other recorded locality", though he was aware of records from additional sites in 1904 and 1907. This is a moth of rough herb-rich grassland, mostly on calcareous soil. The larvae feed on various members of the Compositae, or Asteraceae as we are meant to call them nowadays. The Atlas tells us the the abundance and distribution have both seriously declined nationally. In Yorkshire it seems to be commonest in the south and east, and it is only ever trapped in small numbers - in fact 94% of our records are of single moths. This perhaps suggests that it is not strongly attracted to light. Better luck may be had by looking for it soon after dusk, feeding on flowers. It seems to be holding up better in Yorkshire than in much of the country, and numbers at the moment are reasonably healthy.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: More widely recorded in the last few years but still rather local. In vice-counties 61 and 62 it seems to favour relatively undisturbed sites on sand or chalk (PQW pers. comm.).

Recorded in 80 (40%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1883.
Last Recorded in 2024.
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