website logo Lepidoptera Outer Hebrides

Family: Erebidae   Checklist Number: 72.067

Phytometra viridaria (Clerck, 1759)

Small Purple-barred

Reasonably common in Scotland, and now with a small population established at the south end of South Uist since 2019. An attractive moth when fresh but soon loses its colourful scales. The favoured habitat is heather moorland where the larval food-plants, common milkwort (Polygala vulgaris) and heath milkwort (P. serpyllifolia) grow. The main flight period is May to July.

References: 
Leverton, R. & Cubitt, M. (2024). The Larger Moths of Scotland.
Waring, P. & Townsend, M. (2018 third edition). Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland.

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