Six-belted Clearwing - Bembecia ichneumoniformis
Wingspan 15 to 21 mm. It gets its name from the six yellowish bands on the abdomen and has mostly transparent wings, only edged in scales.
Inhabits various locations where the food plants are present, particularly on calcareous soils including chalk downland, quarries and sea-cliffs.
The day-flying adults are on the wing between June and August.
The foodplants are the bird's-foot trefoils (genus Lotus) or Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), the larvae feeding in the rootstock.
Six-belted Clearwing is distributed mainly in the southern half of Britain and was previously believed to be very uncommon. In a recent survey to determine the status of all macro moths in Britain this species was classified as Nationally Scarce B but the introduction of an effective pheromone lure for this species has shown it to be more common than previously thought.
Previously recorded rather infrequently in Leicestershire and Rutland, but the introduction of an effective pheromone lure for this species has shown it to be more common in our area than previously thought.
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
Enter a town or village to see local records
MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020
UK Map
Species profile
- Common names
- Six-belted Clearwing
- Species group:
- Moths
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
- Order:
- Lepidoptera
- Family:
- Sesiidae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 27
- First record:
- 16/06/2010 (Skevington, Mark)
- Last record:
- 20/07/2024 (Timms, Sue)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
10km squares with records
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.