Chapter VIII: Part II: Descriptions of Species (5)

This exceedingly local and rare British moth has the fore wings pale reddish-brown, suffused on the outer marginal area with grey; about the centre of the wings there is a short black line preceded by a whitish mark; beyond is a blackish, indistinct, wavy line; the greyish outer area is limited by a brown line, and this is inwardly edged with whitish: hind wings purplish brown with the central area whitish and crossed by a blackish line. Fringes whitish, marked with brown at the ends of the veins (Plate 63).

Kirby states that the caterpillar is rust coloured, with a black stripe on the back, on which stand white dots; and with reddish-yellow transverse spots on the second and third rings. Another form is grey, and the back white, with a broad black central stripe interrupted by rust-coloured spots dotted with black.

The following brief description is taken from an inflated skin of an immature caterpillar received from Dresden: brownish inclining to reddish, paler between the rings; clothed with short greyish hair, and longer hairs from and above the fleshy tubercles low down along the sides; there is a hair-clothed eminence on ring eleven. The only conspicuous markings are on rings two and three; each of these has two orange spots separated and narrowly edged externally with velvety black; there are two small black spots on the back of each of the other rings, and indications of reddish circles around some of these. Head blackish, covered with greyish hairs (Plate 62). {126}

In this country the caterpillar feeds on bilberry (_Vaccinium myrtillus_), but on the Continent it is said to eat the foliage of sallows and willows, also of birch.

The cocoon is spun up among the leaves of the food plant. That figured on Plate 62, of foreign origin, was on a shoot of bilberry; a moth emerged from it on April 5, 1907. The first detailed account of this species in Britain is that in the _Zoologist_ for 1852, in which Mr. Atkinson records that he took a specimen in May, 1851, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. A year earlier two larvæ were found by Mr. Green on a moor near Sheffield, and one of these attained the moth state in April, 1851. After this moths and caterpillars seem to have been taken in varying numbers down to 1896, when a specimen was captured by Dr. R. Freer of Rugby. Tutt, quoting from a letter received from Dr. Freer, states that two moths were reared from three caterpillars found at Cannock in 1898. The only other known British locality is in the neighbourhood of Lynton, North Devon, where a caterpillar, which, from the description, must have been this species, was found in 1864. It was taken on August 3 in a wood abounding with bilberry.

The species ranges over Central Europe, but seems to be generally rare; it also occurs in Amurland and Japan.

THE LAPPET (_Gastropacha quercifolia_).

Warm reddish brown is the prevailing colour of this fine moth. The wings are more or less suffused with purplish grey, and crossed by blackish lines--three on the fore wings and two on the hind wings. Except in the reddish tinge, which may be bright or dull approaching chocolate, this species is pretty constant in its coloration. Barrett mentions a specimen of a light brown colour, and another of a pale buff. The first of these forms seems to approach the var. _meridionalis_, Staudinger (Tutt), and the other to var. _ulmifolia_, Heuäcker, which are well known on the Continent. In certain favourable seasons a second generation of the moth has been obtained, chiefly perhaps, in confinement, and on the Continent; although in Britain a caterpillar or two will sometimes feed up and attain the perfect state the same year they hatch from the egg. These examples, which are much smaller, but do not otherwise differ from normal specimens, are referable to var. _hoegei_, Heuäcker.

Pl. 62.
1, 1a. LAPPET MOTH: _eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar_.
2, 2a. SMALL LAPPET: _caterpillar and cocoon_.

Pl. 63.
1. SMALL LAPPET MOTH, _male_; 2 _female_.
3. LAPPET MOTH, _male_; 4 _female_.

{127} The moth is figured on Plate 63, and the eggs and caterpillar on Plate 62.

The eggs, which are whitish in colour with greyish markings, are laid, in July or early August, in twos, threes, or more, on twigs or the undersides of leaves of sloe, apple, sallow, hawthorn, etc. A single female moth has been known to lay over a thousand eggs, but this is perhaps exceptional, and somewhere about half that number is possibly near the average. Even the latter would take the moth some time to distribute here and there in small batches.

The caterpillars hatch out in about a fortnight, feed for a few weeks, and in the autumn, when about three-quarters to one inch in length, take up their winter quarters low down on the stems of the food plant, but, in confinement, often on a withered leaf.

Caterpillar dark grey, so thickly sprinkled with minute black dots as to appear almost black; the whole body is clothed with fine and rather short blackish hair; low down on the side there is a fringe of brownish hair, and this covers the fleshy lappets (the older writers named this larva the "Caterpillar with the Lappets"); two white marks edged in front with black on the third ring, and a hairy prominence on the eleventh, are the most conspicuous features of this caterpillar. When the front rings are extended, the divisions between them are seen to be deep blue. Head grey, with darker stripe and paler lines. Occasionally several white marks appear on the back, and this is stated by Professor Poulton to occur more especially in the caterpillars when the twigs and stems of the food plant upon {128} which they have grown up are covered with grey lichen. Sometimes the caterpillar has been reported as destructive in orchards; two or three large ones feeding on a small apple tree would certainly afford evidence of their presence in the shape of denuded twigs, but it is doubtful if they ever occur in sufficient numbers to cause any very serious damage to fruit trees.

The chrysalis is dark brown, inclining to blackish, and covered with a whitish powder, which does not shake off. It is enclosed in a long, grey-brown, tight-fitting cocoon of silk and hairs of the caterpillar, which is generally spun up among the lower twigs, or to the stem of the food plant.

The moth emerges in June or July, and is on the wing at night, when it may be sometimes netted as it flies along or over hedgerows. When caught in this way it dashes about so wildly in the net that it is rarely of much value for the collection. The same may be said of examples taken by light, which at times attracts the moths freely. When resting in the daytime, it very closely resembles a withered bramble-leaf or bunch of leaves. The fore wings are folded down, roof-like, over the hind wings, which are flattened out and their edges project beyond the margins of the fore wings. It is, however, very rarely seen in the open at such times.

The species does not seem to have been recorded from Ireland or from Scotland, but it has a wide distribution in England, although much less frequently met with in the north than in the south. In the Cambridge fens it is perhaps more plentiful than elsewhere, but it is not uncommon in some parts of Berkshire, Huntingdonshire, and Kent. The range abroad extends through Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, to Armenia, Tartary, Siberia, and Amurland; it is also represented in China, Corea, and Japan.

Pl. 64.
KENTISH GLORY MOTH.
_Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon._

Pl. 65.
KENTISH GLORY.
1 _male_; 2 _female_.

{129}

ENDROMIDIDÆ.

THE KENTISH GLORY (_Endromis versicolor_).

This species has the fore wings of the male brownish clouded and suffused with ochreous; there is a white patch at the base, and some white marks including three spots towards the apex, on the outer marginal area; two black cross lines, the first inwardly and the second outwardly, edged with white; the space between the lines is sometimes clouded with whitish, and there is an almost central black [sideways vee]-shaped mark. Hind wings tawny with a black central line, some brownish marks beyond, and sometimes two white spots at the upper angle. The female is much larger in size, without ochreous suffusion on the fore wings, and the hind wings have the ground colour whitish. It varies in the tone of the brown colour, and, in the male, in the amount of ochreous suffusion (Plate 65).

The eggs are laid in rows, generally two deep, on a birch twig. At first they are greenish, but soon change to brownish olive or shining purplish brown.

When young the caterpillars cluster together on the twigs, as shown on Plate 64. They are at first black with glossy dots, and later, greenish, but still dotted with black. After the third skin change, they are without the black dots, and the colour is then pretty much that of the mature caterpillar, which is green, rather whitish on the back, and with a dark green central line; a series of seven creamy oblique stripes along the sides, and on the sides of the first three rings there is a whitish stripe broken at the divisions; these markings are often edged with dark green; on the eleventh ring there is a somewhat horn-like prominence, striped with creamy white, and below it a yellow stripe; the spiracles are white, ringed with black. Head small, paler green, with whitish marks. Feeds on birch, from late May to {130} July. Alder, sallow, and lime have also been mentioned as food plants.

The rough, blackish, or sooty-brown chrysalis is enclosed in a coarse netted cocoon, dark brown in colour, and more or less covered with moss, leaves, or other material, among which it is spun up, generally on the ground, but sometimes just under the surface. Assisted by the points on the rings of the body, the chrysalis is able to work itself partly out of the cocoon, and this it does some days before the moth emerges.

The moths usually emerge in late March and in April, earlier or later in some seasons. They do not always come up the year after pupation, but often remain two or more winters in the chrysalis.

The males fly in the sunshine, and are very strong on the wing; the females are not active until dark. This sex has been found resting on the twigs of birch, also on heather, and occasionally on a tree trunk. The males "assemble" freely to a freshly emerged female. The species inhabits the more open parts of woods and forests, moors and hillsides where birches flourish. It is probably more plentiful in its Scottish localities, such as Rannoch and Forres, than elsewhere, but it occurs also in Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, and Argyllshire. In England it seems to be not uncommon in Wyre Forest, Worcestershire, and the Reading district in Berkshire. It used to be so plentiful in Tilgate Forest, Sussex, that over a hundred males were brought to the net in one day by a bred female put down to allure them. This happened some fifty years ago, and compares curiously with a record of one male attracted by a female in Tilgate Forest, April 13, 1869. Other localities in Sussex that have been mentioned are St. Leonard's Forest and near Petersfield; it has also been found in Herefordshire and in some parts of Suffolk. Distributed over Central and Northern Europe, the range extending to North Italy.

Pl. 66.
1, 2. EMPEROR MOTH, _males_; 3 _female_.

Pl. 67.
EMPEROR MOTH.
_Eggs, natural size and enlarged._
_Caterpillars and cocoon._ (_Photos. by W. J. Lucas._)

{131}

SATURNIIDÆ.

THE EMPEROR MOTH (_Saturnia pavonia_).

In a general way the fore wings of the male may be described as purplish grey, suffused with rosy or with tawny shades; a reddish cloud, black marked above, at the tips of the wings; the outer margins are more or less whitish, and there is a whitish patch about the middle of each wing, in which is an eyed spot; the hind wings are tawny, with a central eye spot and a blackish band towards the outer margin. The female has all the wings pale purplish grey, with whitish bordered outer margins; markings much as in the male, but the central area of the hindwings is more or less whitish. There is some variation in the ornamentation; occasionally the white markings are of large size, or, on the other hand, may be almost or quite obscured. Very rarely the eye-spots are absent from all the wings (ab. _obsoleta_, Tutt), and sometimes they are of abnormal shape. Now and then specimens of the female sex are dark in colour, with red bands, and Barrett mentions an example of this sex smoky black in colour, with still blacker markings (Plate 66).

The olive brown, clouded greyish eggs are laid in neatly arranged batches around the stems or twigs of plants; I once found a batch in North Devon on a loose piece of rock. The caterpillar when full grown is bright green, with black markings; the warts from which blackish bristles arise are yellow, sometimes pink or blackish. In an early stage it is black, with an orange line low down along the sides; later on it is still black, but ringed with orange. It feeds in June, July, and August on many kinds of plants, among which may be mentioned heather, bramble, sallow, sloe; also meadow-sweet (_Spiræa ulmaria_) and purple loose-strife (_Lythrum salicaria_).

The curious cocoon formed by the caterpillar (Plate 67) is {132} so constructed at the narrow end that the moth on emergence can easily pass through; after the insect's escape, the converging fibres forming the "door" spring to again, and the point of exit looks pretty much as before the moth had pushed through. This kind of opening can only be worked from the inside, therefore enemies from without are unable to effect an entrance.

The moths are out in April and May, and the males may be seen on sunny days flying at a great pace over heaths, moorlands, and mosses, also about the borders of woods. The female flies at night, but it may occasionally be met with resting on heather or other herbage in the daytime. A freshly emerged female moth will, as a rule, attract as many specimens of the opposite sex as one would care to take; all that one has to do is to take her in a box to some likely spot, and there await the coming of the males.

The species seems to be generally distributed throughout the British Isles, but is commoner in some parts than in others, and apparently rare in portions of the Midlands.

The distribution abroad extends through Europe to North Asia Minor and Armenia, and to Siberia, Amurland, and Ussuri.

DREPANIDÆ.

The British species belonging to this family, with one exception, have the tips of the fore wings pointed and curved downwards, forming a sort of hook, hence the English name Hook-tips. The exception is _Cilix spinula_, a round winged moth, not at all like other members of the family, but its caterpillar is very like others of the group.

The bristle and catch arrangement for locking the wings is present in all the species, but the tongue or proboscis is absent, or practically so. The caterpillars are not furnished with anal {133} claspers, therefore have only fourteen legs, that is, six true legs and eight false legs (pro-legs). The last ring of the body is more or less tapered, sometimes terminating in a point; the back is roughened with raised spots and warts, or humped. They feed on the leaves of trees and bushes, usually exposed, and they pupate in a silken cocoon, spun up between leaves, or in a folded leaf, of the food plant.

Of the eleven species occurring in the Palæarctic Region, seven are European, and six of these are found in the British Isles.

THE PEBBLE HOOK-TIP (_Drepana falcataria_).

The fore wings are brown, whity brown, or whitish; the central area is crossed by three blackish wavy lines, a blackish blotch in the third line and two blackish dots between it and the second line; beyond there is a dark brown, or reddish-brown curved line from the tip of the wing to the inner margin. Hind wings similar in colour to the fore wings, but paler on the front area; crossed by five wavy dusky lines, sometimes not well marked except on the inner margin; generally, there is a black central dot. The paler forms have a dusky shading on each side of the curved line on the fore wings.

The egg is yellow freckled with orange, chiefly at one end. Caterpillar green, the back reddish-brown, except towards the black-marked yellowish head; two conspicuous warts on rings two to five, and less noticeable raised spots on the other rings, all bearing hairs. In a younger stage it is blackish, with white marks on the fourth and seventh rings; later it becomes greenish below, and the markings on the back of rings four, seven, eight, and ten are whitish or creamy. Until nearly full grown it usually lives on the underside of a leaf, the edges of which are turned over and held down by silken threads; sometimes it may be seen on the upper side of a leaf under a slight web. It feeds {134} chiefly on birch, but is occasionally found on alder, in June and July, and in September and October, and may be obtained by searching or by beating, but the former, although perhaps slower, is much the better method. The moth is shown on Plate 68, and the early stages on Plate 69.

The species is widely distributed, and seems to occur, sometimes commonly, wherever there are birches, especially of bush-like growth, in most English counties and also in Scotland. In Ireland it appears to be somewhat local and scarce.

THE SCARCE HOOK-TIP (_Drepana harpagula_).

The general colour of this species is brownish; the fore wings are slightly tinged with ochreous and speckled with minute violet-tinged silvery scales; between the first and second brown lines there is an irregular ochreous brown mark enclosing yellowish spots; the violet-tinted glistening scales are most in evidence on both sides of the black mark before the outer margin. Hind wings similar in colour to the fore wings; crossed by two brown lines, the second with an ochreous brown blotch above it (Plate 68).

Caterpillar, yellow freckled with brown; clouded with brown on first three rings; a reddish brown irregular stripe runs along the sides and upwards towards middle of the back on rings five, six, eight, and nine; a double-pointed hump on the back of ring three, the points tipped with yellow. Head notched on the crown, dotted and clouded with brown. It feeds on the small-leaved lime (_Tilia parvifolia_), and may be found from July to September and even later. I have not seen a living caterpillar of this species; the above short description has been drawn from an inflated skin (Plate 69).

The only British locality for this species is the Leigh Woods near Bristol, where it was first met with in 1837. It is, however, very rare and difficult to obtain. Abroad it ranges through Central Europe to Livonia, Southern Sweden, and to Northern Italy. On the Continent the caterpillar feeds on the foliage of other trees than lime, and there are two broods in the year.

Pl. 68.
1. SCARCE HOOK-TIP, _male_; 2 _female_.
3, 5, 6. PEBBLE HOOK-TIP, _males_; 4, 7 _females_.

Pl. 69.
1, 1a, 1b. SCALLOPED HOOK-TIP: _eggs, caterpillar and chrysalis_.
2, 2a, 2b. PEBBLE HOOK-TIP: _caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon_.
3. SCARCE HOOK-TIP: _caterpillar_.

{135}

THE OAK HOOK-TIP (_Drepana binaria_).

The male is of an ochreous-tinged brown coloration; all the wings are crossed by two slender deep ochreous lines, and have two obliquely set, almost central, black dots; outer margin of fore wings often blackish, marked towards the tip; the hind wings are deep ochreous on the front marginal area. Fore wings of the female paler, and the hind wings ochreous yellow; the cross lines on the latter often lost in the ground colour (Plate 71).

In freshly emerged male specimens the brown is sometimes purplish tinged, and in some examples of the same sex the hind wings may be described as ochreous, with brown bands. The female occasionally has the fore wings tinged with greyish, and the hind wings are sometimes banded with brown, especially on the inner marginal area.

The caterpillar is ochreous brown with a double-pointed hump on ring three, a yellowish diamond on the back of rings five to ten; the front and hind rings are brown, more or less tinged with purple; yellowish lines, shaded below with purplish brown, on the sides meet on the back and form an edging to the diamond mark. The figure on Plate 70 shows the caterpillar in its usual resting attitude. It feeds on oak.

A widely distributed species in the southern half of England, but not especially abundant in any locality, and not known to occur north of Lincoln.

THE BARRED HOOK-TIP (_Drepana cultraria_).

Fore wings pale fulvous or ochreous brown, with two paler cross-lines on all the wings, space enclosed by the lines darker brown; a black or blackish central dot, and before the brownish {136} outer margin there is a pale line ending on the tip of the wing. The hind wings have an obscure dusky central dot placed in the upper edge of the band, and usually there are two brownish bands on the outer marginal area, but these do not extend to the front margin. Except that the female is generally larger, and the antennæ are simple, the sexes are much alike (Plate 71).

This species is best distinguished from _binaria_ by the dark bands, and the straighter second line. The central dots are less trustworthy characters, because summer specimens of the present species often have two of these spots on the fore wings (var. _æstiva_, Spr.), and in occasional examples of _binaria_ the lower central spot of the hind wings is absent. As a rule, however, the central dots are more conspicuous in _binaria_ than in _cultraria_. The egg is yellowish, tinged with reddish at the ends and along the sides. The caterpillar is somewhat similar to that of the last species, but the hump on ring three is smaller, and the side lines and diamond mark are whiter. It may be found in June and July, and again in September, and even in October in some years. It feeds on beech (Plate 70).

This species is found where beech trees occur, preferably on a chalky soil, in the counties of England from Norfolk southwards. The male may often be seen in May, flying around the beech trees or neighbouring bushes, in the sunshine; or both sexes may be caused to leave their resting places among the foliage by tapping the boughs.

Its range extends through Central Europe to Asia Minor.

THE SCALLOPED HOOK-TIP (_Drepana lacertinaria_).

The name Scallop Hook-tip given to this species by Moses Harris in 1775, doubtless referred to the ragged outlines of the fore wings. These wings are pale brown in colour, freckled and clouded with darker tints, and crossed by two dark-brown lines; the central dot is black, but often minute; fringes {137} white, chequered with brown. Sometimes the freckling is heavy and the clouding very dark, becoming almost black on the outer margin; such specimens seem to be referable to var. _scincula_, Hübn. In another form the fore wings are ochreous brown, with very tiny freckling and only light clouds on the upper part of the outer margin. The hind wings in all the forms are pale whitish brown, with a black central dot, and brown marginal line; in the darker specimens these wings are clouded or suffused with dark brown (Plate 71).

The egg is pale yellowish when laid, but changes afterwards to reddish. The full-grown caterpillar is pale brownish, marked with darker or reddish brown on the back and sides, and raised spots; there are double-pointed humps on rings two and three, and a similar but smaller elevation on ring eleven. In the younger state the caterpillar is blackish, with whitish marks on the fourth, seventh, and eighth rings, and some white dots on the end rings. It feeds on the upper surface of the leaves of birch in June and July, and again in August and September.

Chrysalis, reddish brown, the ring divisions blackish grey; powdered with whitish, and appearing as though dusted with flour. Attached by the anal spike to the interior of the silken web-like cocoon. In the Figure (Plate 69) the pupa is shown hanging from the ruptured cocoon, upon the covering leaf of which a half-grown caterpillar is depicted.

The moth is out in May and June, and a second generation appears in August. It is not uncommon in most birch woods, and on heaths and commons, where birch flourishes; but the perfect insect, which rests on leaves and twigs of trees and bushes, and the herbage under them, is not so frequently or so easily obtained as the caterpillars. The latter may be searched for in the daytime, or they may be dislodged by beating.

Widely distributed throughout England, but local or scarce in Lancashire and Yorkshire and northwards; also, according to {138} Barrett, in Devonshire and in the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge. It occurs in the Clydesdale district, Ross, Argyllshire, and Sutherland in Scotland; and in Ireland it seems to be widely spread and common in some localities.

THE CHINESE CHARACTER (_Cilix glaucata_).

Probably in reference to the grey-brown oval blotch on the middle of the white fore wings, this moth was known to the older entomologists by the English name of "Goose-egg." On the blotch, however, there are silvery marks on the veins, and below it (often attached) there is a blackish blotch with some bluish silvery scales upon it. These markings probably suggested to Haworth the name Chinese Character by which it is commonly known (Plate 71).

The caterpillar is reddish brown, with a darker line along the back, and a paler patch on rings three to five, extending as a narrow stripe to the dark-brown spiked tail; two raised warts on rings two and three, with a white dot between the hinder pair. Head darker brown, paler in front. It feeds in June and early July, and in September and October, chiefly on hawthorn and sloe, but it will also eat apple and pear. The chrysalis, which is enclosed in a brown, rather tough, silken cocoon, spun up among leaves or under loose bark, is greyish on the wing covers, and reddish on the body.

The moth is out in May and early June, and again from late July well into August. Sometimes it may be seen resting on a leaf in a hedgerow. When disturbed in the daytime, which may happen where one is beating the bushes, it falls, rather than flies, to the ground. At night it may be netted as it flies along the hedgeside or wood borders in almost every county of England and Wales. In Scotland its range seems not to extend north of Clydesdale. Kane states that it is "widely spread, but not generally at all numerous" in Ireland.

Pl. 70.
1. OAK HOOK-TIP: _caterpillar_.
2, 2a, 2b, 2c. BARRED HOOK-TIP: _egg, enlarged; caterpillar, chrysalis
and cocoon_.

Pl. 71.
1. OAK HOOK-TIP, _male_; 2 _female_.
3. BARRED HOOK-TIP, _male_; 4 _female_.
5, 7. SCALLOPED HOOK-TIP, _males_; 6, 8 _females_.
9. CHINESE CHARACTER, _male_; 10 _female_.

{139}

NOLIDÆ.

Some thirteen or fourteen species occurring in Europe are referred by Staudinger to this family. Only five of these occur in the British Isles. The moths are of rather small size, less, in fact, than some of the so-called "Micros," among which they have been placed. Probably they may, for this reason, be overlooked. They mostly sit head downwards on the trunks, branches, or leaves of trees, sometimes on palings, but the rarer ones hide themselves among the thick, low herbage. The time of flight is after dark, and the moths occasionally visit the sugar patch. The caterpillar has only eight false legs (prolegs), the first pair being the absent ones; the body is clothed with tufts of hair, the hairs of the front and rear tufts longer than the others. When full grown it spins a more or less spindle-shaped, toughish cocoon of silk mixed with the larval hairs, which is usually coated with particles scraped from the surface of twig or stem upon which it is spun up.

THE SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH (_Nola cucullatella_).

The fore wings are whitish or greyish, with a dark, almost black, patch at the base; this patch is marked with whitish, and is limited by the first cross line, which is black and curved; the second line, also black, is wavy and curved inwards towards the front margin; between these lines is a dusky central shade, commencing in a blackish spot on the front margin, and sometimes forming an inward border to the second line; a raised tuft of white, grey-capped scales on the basal patch, and two other tufts beyond it and in a line with the front margin; hind wings dark grey, paler towards the base (Plate 73).

The caterpillar is reddish brown, clothed with short greyish hairs; the spots and central line on the back are whitish. It {140} hatches from the egg early in August, and after feeding for a while, retires to winter quarters, selecting some sheltered cranny, such as a chink in the tree bark, where it spins over itself a few strands of silk. Feeding is resumed in May and June, after hibernation, usually on the upperside of leaves of sloe and whitethorn, and also of fruit trees, such as apple and plum, and sometimes pear (Plate 72).

The moth is out in June and July. It flies at dusk.

Widely distributed and generally common in the south of England; somewhat rare in Scotland--perhaps overlooked. It has been reported from Ireland, but is not mentioned by Kane in his catalogue of Irish Lepidoptera.

THE SMALL BLACK ARCHES (_Nola strigula_).

Fore wings greyish white, freckled and dusted with grey brown at the base and on the front and outer margins; two black wavy and toothed cross lines; between the base of the wing and the second line are three raised tufts of grey brown tipped whitish scales: hind wings dark grey, paler towards the base (Plate 73).

The caterpillar feeds, probably after hibernation, from April to June, on the undersides of oak leaves. It is pale ochreous in colour, with pale reddish brown warts and star-like tufts of hair; a blackish bar on the back of ring six; head blackish.

The moth emerges from the chrysalis in July. It occurs in oak woods in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Somerset and Gloucestershire; also in Berks, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, but it is very local and seems to be restricted to a more or less limited area in all its known haunts, among which the most favoured are perhaps the New Forest in Hampshire and Abbots Wood in Sussex. In some years it may be fairly common, or even plentiful, and then becomes quite scarce during several seasons in the same place. {141}

THE LEAST BLACK ARCHES (_Nola confusalis_).

Very similar to the last species, but whiter; the first line is curved towards the second tuft of raised scales, thence gently curved to the inner margin, above which there is a slight inward angle or elbow; the second line is less wavy; hind wings whitish grey with a black central dot, and in the male whiter along the inner area. The head and palpi of this species are white, but _strigula_ has a greyish white head and dark palpi. Again, the antennæ in the male of the present species are ciliated, but in male _strigula_ they are bipectinated (Plate 73).

The caterpillar, which feeds in July and August on the leaves of oak, beech, sloe, and apple, etc., is reddish, inclining to yellow on the back, which is traversed by black lines, the central double and interrupted on rings seven to nine by rusty V-shaped marks.

The moth flies in May and June.

This species appears to have a wider distribution than either of the others. It is the only one known with certainty to occur in Ireland, and it is widely spread in that country. In Scotland it is found in Perthshire and Ayrshire, and probably is present in other parts. In England it is obtained in most counties, except perhaps the northern, although it has been recorded from various parts of Yorkshire.

KENT BLACK ARCHES (_Nola albula_).

Fore wings white, largely light brown between the obscure cross lines; outer marginal area clouded, and front margin dotted with light brown; three tufts of raised scales placed as in previous species; hind wings of the male, greyish white, browner on the outer margin; of female, brownish grey. Varies in the amount of light brown, and sometimes this is much reduced; more rarely it disappears entirely (Plate 73). {142}

The caterpillar varies in colour from ochreous with pink tinge to bone white; the warts are set with pale hairs and those along the back and at each extremity are longest; a double greyish line along the middle of the back, and a series of black marks on each side; these marks unite across the back on rings six and ten. After hibernation, it feeds in Spring until June, on the young growth of bramble, raspberry, strawberry, and cinquefoil (_Potentilla reptans_), and is stated to also eat hemp agrimony (_Eupatorium cannabinum_). The brownish cocoon is constructed on a stem of grass and in appearance looks not unlike a swelling of the stem.

This species was first observed in England in the year 1859, when four specimens were taken in July at Chattenden Roughs, a large hilly wood in North-east Kent. It still occurs, no doubt, in the Kentish locality referred to, but is now very scarce there compared with what it must have been some twenty-five years ago. Barrett notes a specimen from the Isle of Wight. Mr. G. T. Porritt states that he has seen one of two examples captured in South Devon in 1901; and another, a male, has been recorded as taken at light in a house near Weymouth, Dorset, in August, 1904, and from Lewes in 1906.

At the time the first specimens were met with in England the species seems to have been rare, or little known on the Continent. Since then knowledge of its distribution has vastly increased, and it has now been found not only in many parts of Central Europe, but also in Finland, Italy, Dalmatia; Asia Minor, Persia, and extending into Amurland and Japan.

THE SCARCE BLACK ARCHES (_Nola centonalis_).

The general colour of this moth is white; the fore wings more or less sprinkled and clouded with brownish grey or dark grey, and crossed by two black lines, the first curved and the second slightly waved, indented and edged inwardly with ochreous brown; the three raised tufts are white, capped with grey (Plate 73).

Pl. 72.
1, 1a. SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH: _caterpillar and cocoon_.
2, 2a, 2b. GREEN SILVER-LINES: _caterpillar and cocoon_.
3, 3a, 3b. SCARCE SILVER-LINES: _caterpillar before hibernation,
chrysalis and cocoon_.
4, 4a. LARGE MARBLED TORTRIX: _caterpillar and cocoon_.

Pl. 73.
1. CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA.
4, 7. GREEN SILVER LINES.
10. SCARCE SILVER LINES.
2, 3. SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH.
5. SMALL BLACK ARCHES.
6. LEAST BLACK ARCHES.
13. KENT BLACK ARCHES.
8, 9, 11, 12. SCARCE BLACK ARCHES.

{143} This is the only really variable species among the five occurring in this country. In some specimens the space between the cross lines is largely filled in with dark grey, and in other specimens the wings are almost entirely white, traces of the cross lines being the only markings.

Mr. Robert Adkin, who has reared this species from the egg, kindly allowed me to select specimens from his fine series to illustrate the range of aberration; these are figured on Plate 73.

Caterpillar brownish inclining to purplish, with an ochreous line along the middle of the back and some brown V-shaped black marks. Head blackish brown. It feeds in May, after hibernation, on various clovers, preferring the blossoms, and bird's-foot trefoil (_Lotus corniculatus_).

The moth appears some time between mid-July and mid-August. The late Mr. Tugwell, by keeping some larvæ, reared from the egg, in a warm room induced them to feed up instead of hibernating, and they attained the moth state in December.

This is another exceedingly local species in England. It was first taken at Bembridge in the Isle of Wight in 1858, and one or two specimens have since been obtained in that island. Examples have also occurred on the cliffs near Hastings, and at Folkestone; and one has been recorded as taken in a light trap at Woodbridge in Suffolk, July 21, 1904. The headquarters for the species in this country are the Deal sand-hills, on the Kentish coast, where it was discovered over a quarter of a century ago, and probably occurs still.

CHLÖEPHORIDÆ.

Authors are not at all agreed as to the systematic position of this family, and there seems to be some difference of opinion as to the species that properly belong to it. Sir George Hampson {144} has transferred the group to the Noctuidæ and separated _S. revayana_ from the others, placing it in his sub-family Sarrothripinæ, to which also belong certain Indian species.

Only four species occur in our islands. Three of these have green fore wings and pale grey or whitish hind wings. The other species, _Sarrothripa revayana_, has the fore wings of various shades of grey, brown, or blackish; its boat-shaped cocoon is very like a small edition of that of _Hylophila bicolorana_, and, although the caterpillar is in some respects not very dissimilar to those of the green-winged species, the moth does not seem quite to be one of their set.

THE CREAM-BORDERED GREEN PEA (_Earias chlorana_).

In size, colour of the fore wings, and general appearance this moth might be mistaken for the much more common Green Tortrix (_Tortrix viridana_). On examination however, it will be seen to have white hind wings, whilst those of the _Tortrix_ are grey. Again, the head, front of thorax, and front edge of the fore wings are white in the present species (Plate 73).

The caterpillar is green, inclining to whitish on the back, the latter lined with brownish, and bearing warts on rings six and eleven. It feeds in July and August on the terminal leaves of osier and willow; these leaves are drawn together with silk, and the solid appearance of the foliage at the end of the twig will afford a clue to the probable whereabouts of the caterpillar when one is searching for it. Chrysalis, brown, darker on the back, paler on the under parts, and on the wing covers; enclosed in a tough boat-shaped cocoon which is often constructed on the bark of a twig or stem of the food plant. As a rule the moth does not emerge until the following year, but in some years a few will appear in the autumn, and others remain in the chrysalis until the following May or June.

This species inhabits damp places where there are osiers, {145} and it is especially common in the fens. It occurs in most of the southern and eastern counties of England, but does not seem to be recorded from other parts of the British Isles.

GREEN SILVER LINES (_Hylophila prasinana_).

The bright green fore wings are crossed by two shaded silvery lines, and a narrow silvery band, the latter running from the tip of the wing to the inner margin, and usually there is a whitish shade between the two lines; the fringes are reddish, or pinkish, and the front and inner margins are tinged with the same colour, sometimes strongly so on the inner margin. The hind wings of the male are whitish, tinged with yellowish green; fringes white, more or less tinted with reddish; in the female the hind wings are entirely silky white. Antennæ reddish (Plate 73).

Caterpillar, green, with yellowish dots, lines on the back, and edging to first ring of the body; the anal claspers are marked above with red. It feeds in August and September on the leaves of oak, birch, beech and nut (Plate 72).

The chrysalis is purplish above merging into pale brown beneath; wing-cases ochreous brown; the dorsal surface, especially the ring divisions, are dusted with whitish dots. It is enclosed in a papery cocoon of a pale pinky brown colour; frequently spun up on the back of a leaf, but also in a curled leaf, bark chink, or among herbage and litter on the ground.

The moth flies in June and July, and is not uncommon in woods throughout the greater part of England, it may be beaten from trees, and is often to be seen sitting on bracken and other undergrowth. It is also found in Scotland up to Moray, and seems to be pretty generally distributed in Ireland. The range of this species abroad extends through Northern and Central Europe, South Russia, Siberia, to Japan. {146}

SCARCE SILVER LINES (_Hylophila bicolorana_).

The green colour of the fore wings of this moth is rather paler than of those of the last species; they are crossed by two almost parallel yellowish lines; hind wings white and silky. Antennæ whitish towards the tip and reddish towards the base (Plate 73).

Caterpillar green, sometimes tinged with yellow, a dark line along the middle of the back is edged on each side with whitish.

The chrysalis is pale greenish, with a narrow black stripe from the head along the thorax extending to the fourth abdominal ring; the wing cases reach the sixth ring, which together with the back of the fifth are roughened with fine blackish points.

Cocoon boat-shaped with the keel raised at the head end. When the moth emerges from this end the cocoon closes up tightly again, so that no opening is to be seen; slight pressure on the back will cause the exit slit to open.

This rather local species is perhaps commoner in the eastern counties of England than elsewhere, but it occurs in the oak woods of Berkshire, and southward to Kent and Hampshire. Much scarcer in the west and midlands, and apparently unknown in the north. Barrett gives Galway and Queen's County in Ireland, but adds that it is rare.

Distributed over Central and Southern Europe, and its range extends to South Sweden, and Asia Minor.

SARROTHRIPINÆ.

THE LARGE MARBLED TORTRIX (_Sarrothripa revayana_).

This is a most variable species, ranging from greyish white through various shades of brown to blackish; the grey and the {147} brown forms are sometimes tinged with green. In the illustration some of the more usual forms of marking are shown. 1 (more or less typical) and 2 are the most common; 5 (_ramosana_) is less frequently met with; 4 (_ilicanus_) has ashy brown fore wings with a black bar at the base, three black dots on the disc, and a series of black dots before the outer margin, the triangular marking on the front margin is reddish; 3 is a modification of the typical form approaching var. _dilutana_; 6 is of the _afzelianus_ form, with shiny brownish fore wings and black markings.

LARGE MARBLED TORTRIX.]

The caterpillar is green with whiter ring divisions; a few long whitish hairs on each segment; a faintly darker line along the back, and a paler interrupted line along the sides. Head yellowish green marked with brownish and sparsely clothed with whitish hairs. It feeds in June and July on the leaves of oak and sometimes on sallow. It spins a whitish boat-shaped cocoon on the under side of an oak leaf or twig, and therein turns to a pale green chrysalis with a broad purple brown stripe along the back from the head; the blunt last ring is tinged with purplish brown and the edge of the ring immediately before it is fringed with minute hooks (Plate 72, Figs. 4, 4a).

The moth seems to be out from August to April. It may be {148} beaten from trees and bushes throughout the autumn, and during the later months of the year it seems to hide in yews and hollies. Just before dusk it becomes active and may then be netted as it flies; later on it may be seen regaling itself on overripe blackberries, or on the ivy blossom, and it is not an infrequent visitor to the sugar patch.

The species has been found in almost every part of England and Wales wherever there are oak woods. In Scotland it occurs up to Argyllshire and Moray. For Ireland, Kane gives Tyrone, Westmeath, Galway, Kerry, and Limerick.

Distribution abroad: Central and Southern Europe, extending northwards to Scandinavia, and eastwards to Amurland and Japan.

ARCTIIDÆ.

In this family Staudinger includes 161 species known to occur in the Palæarctic Region. About forty of these are found in Europe, and thirty-one of the latter rank as British species.

The family is usually divided into two sub-families--Arctiinæ and Lithosiinæ, fifteen of our species being referred to the former and sixteen to the latter. In both groups the caterpillars are hairy, but the hairs are usually longer in those of the "Tigers" than in those of the "Footmen"; the latter, too, are lichen feeders, whilst the others prefer the foliage of plants.

TIGER MOTHS (_Arctiinæ_).

The moths in this sub-family have short, or, rather, stout bodies, and ample wings; and as the tongue is imperfectly developed in most of the species, flowers have not the same attraction for them as for the long-winged and slender-bodied Lithosiinæ, most members of which have this organ well developed.

Pl. 74.
WHITE ERMINE MOTH.
_Caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon._

Pl. 75.
1, 2, 3. WHITE ERMINE MOTH.
4, 5. MUSLIN MOTH, _females_; 6 _male_.
7. WATER ERMINE, _male_; 8 _female_.

{149}

THE WHITE ERMINE (_Spilosoma menthastri_).

Older English names for this generally distributed and often common species are The Great Ermine Moth of Wilkes (1773), Harris (1778), and The Large Ermine of Haworth.

On Plate 75 will be found three colour-forms of the moth. Fig. 1 has the typical whitish colour, Fig. 2 is creamy on the fore wings, and Fig. 3 has the fore wings buff. The last represents a specimen from Scotland, where, especially in the western parts of the country, and also in the north of Ireland, and the north-west of England, buff forms, both paler and much darker than the one figured, are not uncommon. Sometimes the Scottish specimens have smoky hind wings. As regards the black spots on the wings, the species is subject to considerable variation. In some examples almost all the markings are entirely absent; in others they are very small and numerous, or large in size and number; the central spots on the fore wings are often united, forming irregular designs. Again, there may be an unusual amount of black spotting on the outer margins, and all other parts of the wings free of spots. All these aberrations in marking, except, perhaps, the central cluster, seem to occur in the various colour forms. An uncommon form, known as var. _walkeri_, Curtis (Plate 78, Fig. 5), has the black scales gathered together into streaks along the nervures of the fore wings; modifications of this variety have also been found, or reared. Possibly by the careful selection of parent moths showing tendency to the streaked aberration it might happen in a generation or two that var. _walkeri_ would turn up in the breeding cage to reward the rearer for trouble taken in the experiment.

The caterpillar, which is often not uncommon in gardens in August and September, or even later, is brown, with long hairs, and a reddish stripe along the middle of the back. It feeds on {150} the foliage of low-growing plants, and does not appear to be specially attached to any particular kind. The chrysalis is dark brown, in a close-fitting cocoon of silk and hair from the caterpillar, spun up in odd corners on the ground or at the base of a wall or fence, sometimes between the pales (Plate 74).

The moth emerges in June, and may be seen sitting on walls, fences, trees, or on the herbage growing on hedge banks; or even on the bare ground. It often flies into houses when lighted up, and is a frequent attendant at the public gas lamps and electric lights. The geographical range of this species extends through Northern and Central Europe southward to North-West Africa, and eastward to Amurland.

THE WATER ERMINE (_Spilosoma urticæ_).

The specimens of this white moth, depicted on Plate 75, are of the form usually met with in Britain. To Haworth, Stephens, and other early entomologists this was known by the English name of the "Water Ermine" (_S. papyrata_, Marsham), whilst a rarer form--with a minute dot on the disc of the fore wings, and three dusky spots on the hind wings, as in the White Ermine--was the "Dingy White" of Haworth. Occasionally specimens are obtained with extra black spots on the basal and front areas of the fore wings.

Caterpillar, dark brown with a purplish tinge, the hairs, arising in spreading tufts from black warts, are dark brownish; spiracles white; head black and glossy. Feeds in July and August on a variety of marsh plants, among which are yellow loosestrife (_Lysimachia vulgaris_), mint (_Mentha aquatica_), lousewort (_Pedicularis_), water dock (_Rumex hydrolapathum_), and iris. It seems to affect plants growing under bushes, rather than those more exposed. It is, presumably, not difficult to rear in confinement, as there is a record of eight broods belonging to three generations, and all descendants of a captured female, having been reared by Mr. Bacot. Chrysalis dark reddish brown, in a cocoon similar to that of the last species.

Pl. 76.
BUFF ERMINE MOTH.
_Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon._

Pl. 77.
BUFF ERMINE MOTH _and varieties_.

{151} The moth, which emerges in June, is rarely seen away from its favourite haunts, which are marshes and fens; its English name is therefore a very appropriate one. It is not often observed in the daytime, but is on the wing early in the evening, and later on is pretty sure to be attracted to any strong light that may be set up in its neighbourhood. The best localities for the species seem to be the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge, but it used to be fairly plentiful in many suitable parts of East Kent, and no doubt still occurs in some of the marshes between Dartford and Gravesend: it is found in Sussex in the Lewes and Brighton districts, and has been recorded from Kimmeridge in Dorsetshire, from the Isle of Wight, from near Burton-on-Trent, from the Lancaster district, and from Pembrokeshire, South Wales. In Scotland it is rare, and, with the exception of one example reported as taken in an illuminated moth trap at Clonbrock, May, 1896, not known to occur in Ireland.

The distribution abroad extends over Central and Northern Europe, through South Russia to Amurland.

THE BUFF ERMINE (_Spilosoma lubricipeda_).