Chimney Sweeper

Wingspan 22–26 mm. Black wings with white fringes at the tips of the forewings. Its English name, Chimney Sweeper, suits it well. Flies by day in sunshine and low down from mid-May to mid-July. Seen in meadows and along woodland edges where the caterpillar's food plants, Cow Parsley and Rough Chervil, grow. Common throughout the country. It has been seen a few times on the dike and on a woodland path in the plantation with a densely overgrown ditch bank. The caterpillar overwinters from July to May.