The Moths of the British Isles Volume Ii Part 29

9, 10. BEECH-GREEN CARPET.

11, 12. STRIPED TWIN-SPOT CARPET.

{189} The moth is out in October and November in the South, but earlier in the North. It is an inhabitant of woodlands, and may be disturbed from bushes, trees, and sometimes may be seen on the trunks of the latter, and on fences. At night it flies lazily and will occasionally visit ivy then, and even sugar, but is more frequently attracted by light.

The species is pretty generally common throughout England and Wales, Scotland up to Moray, and Ireland.

THE AUTUMNAL MOTH (_Oporabia_ (_Epirrita_) _autumnata_).

Three examples of this species are shown on Plate 78. Figs. 6 [male] and 7 [female] represent the typical form except that the male should be rather more silvery white in the ground colour of the fore wings, and the cross bands more distinctly separated. Fig. 8, also a female, is very close to ab. _sandbergi_, Lampa, in the character of the central cross bands of the fore wings. Ab. _gueneata_, Prout (_autumnata_, Guenee, not Borkhausen), is a form with the typical coloration, but with fainter cross bands.

The caterpillar is somewhat similar to that of the last species, but there is a yellowish tint in the general green coloration, and it is rarely marked with reddish. It is found chiefly on birch, alder, fir, and larch, but will eat hawthorn, and probably the foliage of other shrubs and trees.

May and June.

The moth is out in September and October, sometimes later. It may be dislodged from trees in the daytime, but it seems to be rarely noticed at rest on the trunks.

The species is so often confused with that previously mentioned that its distribution in our islands has not, so far, been clearly ascertained.

However, it certainly occurs in the following northern counties of England--Lancashire (Liverpool district); Cheshire (Delamere Forest); Yorkshire (Cleveland district); North Durham (Birch woods); c.u.mberland (Carlisle). In Scotland it is found in Clydesdale, Perthshire, where it was first noted by Weaver in 1851, Kincardineshire, Aberdeen, and probably further north; in Ireland at Belfast and Enniskillen. Prout notes that he has seen a specimen from Swansea in South Wales. {190}

SMALL AUTUMNAL CARPET (_Oporabia_ (_Epirrita_) _filigrammaria_).

This is most probably a small moorland form of _O. autumnata_, but it rarely a.s.sumes the silvery white typical coloration of that species. A male specimen and two examples of the female are depicted on Plate 77, Figs. 10 [male], 11, and 12 [female].

The caterpillar, which feeds in the spring on bilberry and heather, is green, with yellow lines, a line of darker green between the two central yellow lines along the back; head, green, inclining to brown above.

The moth appears in August and early September, and may be found on the moors, resting on rocks, stones, and even on the ground, as well as on the stems of its food plants.

As a British species it was first recorded by Weaver, who obtained it in the Isle of Arran in 1841; but Edleston, writing in 1842, states that he had taken specimens off stone walls near Staley Bridge, in the Manchester district, "every year for the last three years." It appears to be peculiar to the British Isles and is found in suitable localities from North Staffs., through Cheshire, Lancs., Yorks., and northwards over England and Scotland to the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Ireland it is known to occur in Antrim, Derry, Mayo, Galway, and Limerick.

THE WELSH WAVE (_Venusia cambrica_).

This moth, of which two portraits are given on Plate 78, Figs. 9 [male], 10 [female], is known also by the English name of "Cambric Wave." It was not ascertained to be an inhabitant of Britain until 1839, when it was figured and described by Curtis from specimens obtained in Cardiganshire in Wales.

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In its typical form the fore wings are white, inclining to greyish, with a number of brownish or dark-grey cross lines; two pairs on the central area are marked with black. Sometimes the wings are greatly suffused with smoky grey, and this tint in examples from the Sheffield and Rotherham districts of Yorkshire a.s.sumes a much darker hue, so that all the markings are obscured, but the veins are blacker.

The caterpillar is green, marked with some irregular reddish blotches; a yellowish line along the back. It feeds in August, earlier or later in some seasons, on mountain ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_), and the moth, which rests by day on tree-trunks, is out in July and early August. The haunts of the species are chiefly in hilly localities of the northern counties of England, but it has also been reported from Gloucestershire (Cotswolds), Somersetshire (Weston-super-Mare), and Devon (Dulverton). In Wales it occurs in Merionethshire, as well as in Cardiganshire; and in Scotland it spreads from Roxburghshire, where it is locally common among mountain ash, through Clydesdale to Inverness. It is widely distributed in Ireland. The range abroad extends to j.a.pan and North America.

GREY MOUNTAIN CARPET (_Entephria caesiata_)

The typical greyish form, with blackish wavy cross lines and dark central band, is shown on Plate 80, Fig. 1 [male] and 2 [female]. Figure 3 represents a specimen from Shetland in which the band is sooty black (ab.

_annosata_, Zetterstedt = _nigristriaria_, Gregson). The interesting blackish suffused form from the Isle of Arran (Fig. 4) leads up to a still blacker variety, occurring in the same isle, and also in the Shetlands, in which the whole of the fore wings is nearly as dark as the central band of Fig. 3, and the hind wings are also much darkened; such specimens are referable to ab. _glaciata_, Germar. Ab. _prospicuata_, Prout = _gelata_, Staud., is a form with the fore wings whitish, and the {192} base and the central band thereof blackish; some Shetland specimens closely approach this pretty variety.

The caterpillar is green, with a brownish line along the middle of the back, and a series of pinkish or purplish-red oblique streaks which nearly meet at the central line and so form V-shaped marks; a whitish or yellowish stripe low down along the sides, sometimes edged above with reddish. In some examples the general colour is reddish brown. It feeds in April and May, after hibernation, on bilberry, ling, and heath in a wild state, but may be reared on knot-gra.s.s or sallow.

The moth is out from June until early August, and may be found resting, often in numbers, on rocks and stone walls in mountain and moorland districts, from Herefordshire, northwards through England, North Wales, and over the whole of Scotland, including the isles, and Ireland. Kane states that in the latter country melanic forms, such as those from Yorks, etc., are nowhere met with.

YELLOW-RINGED CARPET (_Entephria flavicinctata_).

The general colour of the fore wings of British specimens of this species (var. _obscurata_, Staud.) is slaty grey; the basal, central, and outer marginal cross bands are thickly sprinkled with yellowish-brown, and it is this feature that at once separates this species (Plate 80, Figs. 5, 6) from that last referred to.

The bristly caterpillar is green, chocolate, or red brown, but always of a dull shade; on the back is a series of black V-shaped marks, and a central dark, slender line; the front part of each V-mark filled up with pink or lilac, forming a triangle, the apex of which is yellow; a yellowish stripe low down along the side (adapted from Fenn). It feeds in the spring till April, after hibernation, on saxifrage (_Saxifraga aizoides_, _S.

hypnoides_, etc), and also on stonecrop (_Sedum_), and is most partial to the flowers of these plants.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 76.

1, 1a. NOVEMBER MOTH: _eggs and caterpillar_.

2, 2a. BEAUTIFUL CARPET: _caterpillars and chrysalis_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 77.

1-4. MOTTLED GREY.

5-8. TWIN-SPOT CARPET.

9-12. SMALL AUTUMNAL CARPET.

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The moth flies throughout the summer, possibly in two generations, as, when reared in confinement, moths appear in May, and from eggs obtained from these, caterpillars feed in June and July, and attain the perfect state in August. Like the last species, its chief resting-places are the rocks, in its favourite haunts, in gorges among the hills and moorlands. It has been recorded from few parts of northern England, but one specimen is said to have been taken in Dovedale, Derbyshire. In Lancashire it has been noted as scarce about Clougha; and in Yorkshire one example was taken on Malham Moor in August, 1876, and one at Hutton Buscel Moor, near Scarborough, July 16, 1891. It is more plentiful in Scotland; in Clydesdale it is local, but not uncommon, the localities mentioned being Lochgoilhead, and watercourses above Ardentinny; more frequent in Perthshire, thence to Sutherland, and it occurs also in the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Ireland, it is found in Co.

Antrim; and Mr. Thomas Greer informs me that it is common at Murlough Bay, Fair Head.

SILVER-GROUND CARPET (_Xanthorhoe montanata_).

Figs. 7 and 8 on Plate 80 represent the most usual form of this species, which is variable in the amount of clouding on the fore wings and in the intensity of the cross marking. In some specimens, chiefly from southern localities, the fore wings are almost clear white, and the central band is broadly blackish (Fig. 9). Shetland specimens, on the other hand, are much clouded or suffused with ochreous brown, and the central band is greyish brown (ab. _shetlandica_, Weir (Fig. 10)). Then there is variation in the central band, which is often entire, but more frequently broken up by bandlets; or it may be considerably narrowed, especially from the middle to the inner margin, and not altogether rarely it is completely severed below the middle, and the lower part almost or quite absent. A specimen with all {194} the wings smoky leaden-grey, and the central bar of the fore wings pale grey-brown, was taken near Longfleet in Wiltshire, in the summer of 1881.

The caterpillar is wrinkled, with a ridge along the sides; in colour it is pale brown, inclining to purplish with blackish dots; three lines along the back, the central one dark greyish, the others paler and broader; below the latter the sides are greyish tinted with a lower edging of pale yellowish brown. It feeds at night on bedstraw, and various low-growing herbage, including gra.s.s. August to April.

The moth is out in June and July, sometimes earlier in the south. It is generally distributed, and, as a rule, common, in woodlands, lanes, etc., throughout the British Isles.

GARDEN CARPET (_Xanthorhoe fluctuata_).

Of this common frequenter of our gardens four examples are depicted on Plate 80. Figs. 11 and 13 are the more frequent forms, but specimens with the central band complete, as in Fig. 12, are not uncommon. Chiefly, but by no means exclusively, in Southern localities, some examples have the ground colour almost pure white; often the wings are more or less suffused with dark grey (ab. _neapolisata_, Milliere), and this is especially the case in Scotland, where, in Aberdeenshire and in Shetland, a blackish form, ab.

_thules_, Prout, occurs. Fig. 14 represents a specimen of this form from Aberdeen. Somewhat rarely, the central band is only indicated by a small spot on the front area of the wing (ab. _costovata_, Haworth), and more often the band is much narrowed or otherwise modified in the direction of that aberration. Fig. 4, Plate 61, shows an extreme example of this form.

Specimens vary in size from rather under one inch to one inch and a half in expanse.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 78.

1-5. NOVEMBER MOTH.

6-8. AUTUMNAL MOTH.

9, 10. WELSH WAVE.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 79.

1, 1a. ARGENT AND SABLE: _eggs, natural size and enlarged, and caterpillar_.

2, 2a, 2b. WOOD CARPET: _caterpillar and chrysalis_.

3. GALIUM CARPET: _caterpillar_.

4. COMMON CARPET: _chrysalis_.