The Belted Beauty.

Belted Beauty. Copy Permitted.

Historically there have been records of the Belted Beauty from the south Lancashire coast and searches of its more usual dune habitat. The moth can be found on the ground during the daytime from late March through to early May and the distinctively striped larvae in June and July.

A rare Belted Beauty moth was found south of Heysham at Pott's Corner in 2001, today in 2013 the moth is in serious danger and under threat from an offshore wind farm cabling route.

This moth has been lost from other locations through the construction of coastal defences and other forms of development. In this case at Pott's Corner proposals have included trenching and tunnelling through parts of the site. It appears this developer has been in touch with Butterfly Conservation and Natural England which has included several visits to the site with the groups.

We need to keep up our guard on this one. We all get world-wide visitors to our blogs - I certainly do - and in particular with supporters in the US in mind, I would ask all visitors to Birds2blog to consider signing the petition currently at the top of my sidebar, remembering....you don't have to live within sight of the location near Heysham to sign and help save this brilliant and rare moth the Belted Beauty.