Yorkshire Status: Fairly common resident.

Mullein was "well distributed and often abundant, but rare in the south-west" according to Porritt in 1907. It is doing well in the county and is well distributed across lowland areas but a bit less common in the uplands. It is still rare in the south-west. This is not a moth that appears in big numbers in moth traps, 97% of records being of just one or two moths, so perhaps it is not very strongly attracted to light. About a third of our records are of the distinctive and rather attractive larvae on mulleins, figworts and buddleias, and this is usually the easiest way to find it. It is rare further to our north.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Often recorded both as an adult at light and as larvae. According to data on map 7 in MBGBI 10, the northern limit of this species in Britain is around the south of VC62 and VC65. This agrees with our lack of records from the north of these vice-counties. However, Dunn and Parrack (1986) do record it as very occasional in Durham.

Recorded in 120 (60%) of 200 10k Squares.
First Recorded in 1863.
Last Recorded in 2023.
Additional Stats