Davey, P., 2009: A species mainly confined to the British coastline, but also found locally inland across southern Britain, the larva feeding on heather (Calluna spp.), trefoil (Lotus spp.), common rock-rose (Heliathemum nummularium), cinquefoil (Potentilla spp.), and other herbaceous plants. In Dorset, the moth colonises two distinctly different biotypes. The first is damp heathland across the Poole Basin where heather and marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris) are potential host foodplants. The other is the coastal belt of Purbeck, Portland and west Dorset where Fabaceae (vetches, trefoils, pea and clover) species grow in abundance within unimproved calcareous grassland. The moth occurs in the two biotypes in equal numbers, although it is common only very locally. It has yet to be found inland on chalky soils despite the presence of many potential host foodplant species. The Annulet is something of a chameleon as the ground colour of members of a given colony tends to blend in with the tone of their surroundings. Moths are darkest (ab. obscuriorata) on the peaty soils in the mires at Morden Bog, Bryantspuddle Heath and Stoborough Heath, and lightest (ab. calceata) on the chalk cliffs at Arish Mell and Ballard Down.