The Dark Bordered Beauty Moth is a small and rare moth found in small colonies only at Strensall Common in Yorkshire and in Newham Bog in Northumberland in England. It can be seen in July and August in damp sites such as lightly wooded wet heathlands, damp grasslands and damp woodlands.

The male Dark Bordered Beauty Moth has yellow-orange wings with reddish brown mottling and the female has lighter yellow coloured wings with reddish brown mottling. Both the male and the female have a reddish brown border that runs evenly along the edge of each wing. Male moths like to fly around at dawn and dusk, whereas the females tend to be less mobile and are not seen very often.

Female Dark Bordered Beauty Moths lay their eggs on the leaves of creeping willow shrubs around July to August where the eggs lay dormant for about nine months. In May or June a greyish brown caterpillar with a white and violet underside hatches out of each egg. The caterpillar forms a cocoon by spinning a silk case around itself and attaches itself either on a food plant or in debris below the food plant. Inside the cocoon the caterpillar transforms itself into a beautiful Dark Bordered Beauty Moth.