(Photo by Alan Parker)
Common Name: Festoon
Species Name: Apoda limacodes
Description: This nationally scarce moth is actually frequently found in Hastings from a number of sites in the Borough, including St Helens Park, Filsham Reedbed and Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve. It is a small, but distinctive brown moth, and most records are of the adult although the green slug-like larvae (pictured) is also very distinctive and easy to identify. The larvae feeds on oak and sometimes beech.
The adult festoon is on the wing during June and July and moth traps placed wherever the foodplant occurs, during this time of the year, is the best way of finding the moth. Although the moth does fly during the day high up in the canopy so if you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of this moth during the day.
Conservation Designation & UK Status: Nationally Scarce category B, Southern Restricted, NBN Map
Status in Hastings: Locally common at a small number of sites, most notably Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve and St Helens Park Nature Reserve.
Factors Affecting Status: The loss of woodland containing oak and beech.
Conservation Action in Hastings:
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Continuation of moth surveys at woodland sites throughout Hastings to ascertain distribution and continued status in the Borough.
Local Nature Reserve designation of woodland sites in Hastings including Church Wood & Robsack Wood, Old Roar Gill & Coronation Wood, Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve and Summerfields Wood.
Proposed LNR designation of Ponds Wood.
Management Plans for woodland sites informed by invertebrate survey data.
