Robson found this species well distributed[...] though not very common, and evidently less rare than the previous one [Pheosia gnoma], a position which is the reverse of our findings today. In our opinion this is much the scarcer of the two, and this is understandable if only because its preferred foodplant, poplar, is much less common than birch, upon which P. gnoma larvae feed. [...] In Durham records are [...] numerous from Fulwell Quarry on the coast (M. Finney) through most of mid-Durham to Hamsterley Forest, where one or two are taken each year. TCD suspects, however, that it may have decreased somewhat in recent years.