Dotted Chestnut

It's quite rare for us to record new macro-moth species from the moth trap, as we've been running it at the same location for over twenty years. But this year we've had two, both of which are spreading in response to climate change.

This rather smartly patterned moth is a dotted chestnut. It was formerly a very local species, occurring mainly in the south and south-east of England, with occasional scattered occurrences elsewhere, but has been spreading rapidly north since about 2012 and is now turning up regularly in Cambridgeshire and surrounding counties such as Leicestershire and Norfolk, though this seems to be the first Peterborough record. 

It inhabits woodland and heathland, flying in October and November, after which it hibernates and appears again in early spring. The foodplants are not well-known in the wild, but it is thought to feed on a number of deciduous trees including apple, plum and blackthorn.