Species Details

ABH: 62.001

BF: 1428

Family: Pyralidae

Subfamily: Galleriinae

Taxon: Aphomia sociella

Authority: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Vernacular: Bee Moth

Account: Common around bee and wasp nests and in beehives throughout Britain. Highly sexually dimorphic, the distinctive male is unmistakable, but the female is superficially similar to the much narrower-winged Melissoblaptes zelleri, a species confined to sandhills in a very few locations in south-eastern England. Larva feeds on the debris in, and contents of, wasp and bee nests.

Accounts provided by and used with the kind permission of Mike Wall, Hampshire County Moth Recorder. These will in due course be gradually replaced with species accounts with a Surrey context.

Wingspan: 25 — 38 mm

Surrey Flight Period: 18 Mar (2016) — 22 Aug (2015)

The flight period of overwintering adults are not given. See the flight chart below the distribution map.

Foodplant:

Foodplant accounts are from the HOSTS database — Natural History Museum, London, UK. (CC0).

Status: Common

UK BAP:

WCA:

Click here to view the full geology map of Surrey.

Verification Grade: 1 — Relatively easily identified 👌

Further Information: https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/aphomia-sociella/

Statistics

* Based on adult records only.

Records: 323

Individuals: 62

Earliest Year: 1985

Latest Year: 2025

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