Hantsmoths

Common in parks, gardens and woodland throughout the British Isles. Widespread in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight, but rarely numerous, although cocoons may be found under the bark of old sycamores in numbers during the winter. Wingspan 13-16 mm. Differs from P. trauniana in having the medio-dorsal blotch of the forewing orange-yellow and subfalcate, its outer edge curving to meet the dorsum well before the tornus, the costal strigulae less widely separated by wedges of orange-yellow ground colour and the distinctly metallic bluish striae [Bradley]. Larva feeds within seeds of Sycamore and Norway Maple, over-wintering as a pupa in a cocoon.