A new moth for me

Disturbed while I was gardening, a moth flew away and settled on some grasses. Of course, I had to go and look and I'm very glad I did, as it turned out to be a moth I've never seen before. It's quite common in south and central UK, but I've only ever seen it in the field guide: Mother Shipton Euclidia mi. It was formerly named Callistege mi, but there have been taxonomic changes. I keep tripping over changes to names for plants, spiders, now moths! My first edition field guides to the (macro)Moths of Great Britain and Ireland (2003) and Micro Moths of Great Britain and Ireland (2012) use the BF (Bradley and Fletcher) number, but there is now a "new" decimal-style checklist number, corresponding to "A checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles" by Agassiz, D.J.L., Beavan, S.D. & Heckford R.J. 2013, also referred to as "the 2013 checklist" and ADH numbers.

Mother Shipton moth on grass

The mirror-image cream-edged brown markings are thought to resemble the profile of a hag, so it was named after Mother Shipton, the famous16th century Yorkshire witch, who was reputed to have been hideously ugly (although, considering that witches always got a bad press, could she have been recorded as anything but ugly?). The moth may just be cream and shades of brown, but I think Mother Shipton is rather beautiful.

The larvae feed on clovers and various grasses, overwintering as a pupa on grass stems. The adult flies by day from May to July, visiting flowers such as ox-eye daisies and buttercups, and is easily disturbed, so I'm amazed I never came across it when I lived on the farm. They may be common, but the meadows and wild, grassy places that they and many other species need are becoming less so, something which makes scruffy, untamed waste places important for biodiversity.