Pyrausta sanguinalis - Distribution map

Please note that the NBN Gateway map service has been terminated as of 1 April 2017.

As soon as a replacement map service is available, distribution maps will hopefully appear here again.

In the meantime, you can get some idea of distribution from the NBN Atlas website.

View the NBN Atlas Map

63.004 BF1364

Pyrausta sanguinalis

(Linnaeus, 1767)


Wingspan 16-18 mm.

With its bright purple and yellow markings, this small species is easily recognisable, but local and scarce.

It was formerly found in various coastal sand-hills in the north and west of England, western Ireland and parts of Scotland. However it has become scarcer in recent years and is now believed extinct in mainland England and Scotland, occurring only in a few locations in Northern Ireland and one locality on the Isle of Man.

The larvae feed internally on wild thyme (Thymus).

There are two generations, flying in June and again in August, when the moths are on the wing in the daytime sunshine as well as at night.
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