Dot Moth

and is attracted to light, sugar and flowers.

The larva is rather variable in colour, being green, brown or even purplish. It is marked with lighter diagonal markings and has a distinctive hump at the rear end. It is polyphagous, feeding on a wide variety of plants (see list below). The species overwinters as a pupa.

# The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.

Recorded food plants

Aconitum
Actaea
Aegopodium - Ground-elder
Alnus - Grey Alder
Aquilegia - Columbine
Betula - Silver Birch
Calluna - Heather
Campanula
Cirsium - Creeping Thistle
Delphinium
Hieracium - Hawkweed
Impatiens - Touch-me-not Balsam
Larix - Larch
Lupinus - Lupin
Lysimachia - Yellow Loosestrife
Petunia
Phlox
Polygonum
Prunus - Bird Cherry
Pteridium - Bracken
Quercus - Holm oak
Ribes - Currant
Rubus - Raspberry
Rudbeckia
Salix - Willow
Sambucus - Elder
Solidago - Goldenrod
Sorbus - Rowan
Spinacia - Spinach
Tagetes
Tropaeolum - Nasturtium
Urtica - Nettle
Vaccinium - Bilberry

References

*Chinery, Michael Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
*Skinner, Bernard Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles 1984