Yorkshire Status: Uncommon and local resident.

Micropterix species are small, with glossy purplish or bronze-coloured wings held at a steep angle. They are a very primitive group of moths, with functioning jaws, feeding on pollen.

Micropterix tunburgella (named after KP Thunberg, a successor of Linnaeus as chair of Botany at Uppsala University) was known to Porritt who listed records from Richmond, Sedbergh and York in 1883. It is rather elusive, and is not recorded every year. Most records are of moths seen by day, sometimes swarming around the tops of trees, though rarely it can come to light. Records come from well-wooded districts, especially oak woodland, and it is rare in VC61. The wing markings are usually fairly distinctive.

Sutton & Beaumont, 1989: Recorded sparsely from all five vice-counties, sometimes locally fairly common.

Recorded in 17 (9%) of 200 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1857. Last Recorded in 2022. Additional Stats

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