Hantsmoths

Vulnerable (proposed as a future Red Data Book species) in woodland and hedgerows in southern England, a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Not recorded for almost 100 years until when, in 1986, a dead specimen was found hanging from a spider's web on an oak trunk in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, and since then in a number of other southern English counties subsequently. Not least Hampshire, where, having been last recorded from the New Forest in 1884, single examples were recorded from different locations in Mottisfont Great Copse in 2010, and then again in the north of the New Forest in 2013. Not recorded from the Isle of Wight to date. Wingspan 12-14 mm. Larva feeds on various mosses, on walls, rocks and tree trunks.

VC11 South Hampshire