in [Robson's] Catalogue notes, written some time before 1899, we read "A few years ago I put down nearly a thousand pupae of lonicerae, at what I thought a suitable place near Blackhall Rocks. For two or three years afterwards specimens were taken where I had placed the pupae, but I have heard of none recently. The place seemed to me similar to its habitat near Scarborough." From this we assume that the pupae were obtained from Scarborough stock, which we now know as ssp. latomarginata, and the assumption is borne out by the fact that our insects today are all of that subspecies. The Vasculum records, from 1915 onwards, do not mention the species until 1947, when it was found along railway embankments and waste places such as derelict industrial sites that were being newly colonised by plants. Such places were Birtley railway (1947) and Brasside Ponds (1949). In the 1950's and 1960's records came regularly from many parts of Durham County except for the uplands of the west. In several places there were such enormous explosions in the abundance of the moth that it was the subject of frequent mention in local newspapers. [...]