Nationally scarce (Nb) in parks, open woodland, damp grassland, woodland edges and scrub in parts of south-western England. It seems to have vanished from many of its old haunts in the eastern part of southern England and is now found most commonly in suitable areas of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, south-west and central Wales and Cheshire. The reasons for its decline are not understood. In Hampshire former strongholds were Havant Thicket and parts of Woolmer Forest, but it has long since gone from the New Forest. The most recent Hampshire records are of singletons at Deadwater Valley on 17 July 2006 and Testside Lakes on 24 July 2010. Not recorded from the Isle of Wight to date. Wingspan 44-52 mm. Larva feeds on Common Bent, Creeping Soft-grass, Cock's-foot and Wood Meadow-grass.