In Robson's time it was 'In nearly all the lists and recorded as "sometimes common" in most of them'. This is probably true today, although closer coverage gives a clearer idea of where the shortfalls occur. [...] The shortage of records appears quite clearly in the higher, wetter moorland and coniferous woodland in the west, and on the Fell Sandstone area generally, reinforcing the comment in MBGBI (10, 184) that it tends be 'most abundant in drier grassland . . .' [...] In Durham, it is common in the lowlands and eastern part of the county, noticeably absent from Upper Teesdale, the furthest west being around Barrnard Castle (J. P. Robson) and the Hamsterley Forest trap where it has occurred regularly since 1982. The concept of a dry grassland distribution is approximately adhered to. The moth is on the wing from the last week in June to mid-August in its lowland haunts.