Yorkshire Status: Scarce and very local resident.

Star-wort was absent from the Yorkshire fauna until 1949 when larvae were found on sea aster at Spurn. Records built up over the years as the colony became established and peaked in the early 2000s. There has been a decline since then though numbers fluctuate a lot from year to year. Since 2009, there have been records from adjacent areas and it has been seen as far north as Catwick and as far west as Hessle and Cottingham. These are the most northerly records in the country. Further south, colonies exist from Lincolnshire round the coast as far as Sussex. It is probably still hanging on in Hampshire and South Wales but is much less common here than it used to be, and it has been lost from many sites in the south and west. Many years ago it even occurred in the Morecambe Bay area. It could be confused with Mullein, but flies a lot later. It is likely that our moths all feed on sea aster. In some parts of the country, they feed on golden-rod in woodland clearings.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: First found at Spurn (VC61) as larvae in August 1949 by H. N. Michaelis (Michaelis, 1951), there is still a thriving colony at this site. Apparently this species is a well-known vagrant in the South of England but it does not seem to have strayed far from Spurn. The only other Yorkshire record is of a larva collected from Sunk Island shore (VC61) in August 1986 (Payne, 1987b) which emerged in 1987 (JP pers. comm.). This is another species which could conceivably occur at South Gare, Redcar (VC62), a similar habitat to Spurn.

	Retained Specimen / Photograph will be Required.

Recorded in 8 (4%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1949.
Last Recorded in 2023.
Additional Stats