Sandhill rustic

Technical description and variation

It is like Luperina testacea, but olive grey, without any rufous tinge; inner and outer lines conversely edged with whitish; a blackish shade before inner line from median vein to inner margin, interrupted at vein 1; claviform stigma broadly blackish; orbicular a minute white spot; reniform subquadrate, with fuscous centre and broad white annulus, the area beyond it blackish, submarginal line whiter, preceded, except between veins 6 and 7, by a blackish shade; a row of neat black marginal lunules; fringe dark grey pencilled with light grey; hindwing pure white, with dark marginal lunules and white fringe; the veins dark.

The sandhill rustic in Britain

In Britain, it flies in one generation between late July and late September and is represented by three subspecies:

Subspecies demuthi

Found on the coasts of Kent, Essex and Suffolk

Subspecies gueneei

Found in coastal sandhills in North Wales and Lancashire

Subspecies leechi

Subspecies leechi, is found on Loe Bar, Cornwall, the shingle beach which separates Loe Pool from the sea. Two pupae, found in the sand, by Barry Goater and Michael Leech in September, 1974 was the first sign of this previously unknown subspecies. The female moth is reluctant to fly and rarely appears at light; behaviour that has presumably evolved as an adaptation to its windswept habitat. With only one known population ssp. leechi is a Biodiversity Action Plan species (BAP), is listed in the Red Data Book (RDB1) and a species account is given in the Cornish RDB.

Biology

The larvae feed on the stem and roots of sand couch (Elytrigia juncea) from September to the following July.

The sandhill rustic in Ireland

In Ireland, the sandhill rustic is represented by the subspecies knilli, which occurs only in County Kerry.