Key to Text Moths of Northamptonshire

Key to Map
  Privet Hawk-moth Sphinx ligustri  
         
  Status:  Resident and partial migrant.

Distribution and Abundance:  Local.

Primary Habitat:  Woodland.

Flight Period:  Single brooded in June and July.

Localities:  Towcester, Weldon Park, Ashton Wold and Southorpe Paddock.

Observations:  In the Kettering area during the 1880’s the caterpillar could be found commonly on privet and the moth readily caught at dusk feeding on honeysuckle. It also appeared on historical lists from the north of the county and from the Northampton area. Although still common around the turn of the 20th century it then seems to have declined in mid and south Northants with an absence from Kettering lists of some forty years. Currently the moth is generally spreading southwesterly through the county with first records for Geddington Chase in 1995, Pitsford Reservoir in 2000 and Salcey Forest as yet without records.

L.O.N.:  1907. Many localities. Common.

First Record:  1842, Clark.