Six-belted Clearwing - Bembecia ichneumoniformis

Description

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.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Inhabits various locations where the food plants are present, particularly on calcareous soils including chalk downland, quarries and sea-cliffs.

When to see it

The day-flying adults are on the wing between June and August.

Life History

The foodplants are the bird's-foot trefoils (genus Lotus) or Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), the larvae feeding in the rootstock.

UK Status

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.

VC55 Status

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.

Reference
52.014 BF382

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

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

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