The Burren Green is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Noctuidae

Noctuidae

The Noctuidae or owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....

 family. It is found in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.
The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 37-42 mm. The length of the forewings is 17-18 mm. The moth flies in one generation from late June to September .

The larvae feed on various grasses including Purple Moor Grass

Purple Moor Grass

Molinia caerulea is a perennial grass native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to 2,300 m in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid soils, ideally pH values of between 3.5 and 5, however, it can continue to live under more extreme...

. The vernacular name reflects its presence in the Burren

The Burren

The Burren is a karst-landscape region or alvar in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometres and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages Ballyvaughan, Kinvara, Tubber, Corofin,...

 region in western Ireland, its only station in Britain and Ireland. It was first collected 1949 by William Stuart Wright and its identification made by Eric Classey

Eric William Classey

Eric William Classey was an English entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera.Eric Classey was a book dealer and entomological publisher and cofounder of The Entomologist’s Gazette. He was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.-References:*** Agassiz,D. and Drake, T., 2009 Obit....

who was sent specimens by Wright. An alternative name proposed for the species, the Claddagh, never gained acceptance. The Irish population has been described as a subspecies, occidentalis Cockayne 1954