The Moths of the British Isles Volume Ii Part 33

MAY HIGHFLYER (_Hydriomena impluviata_).

The typical and commoner form of this species is shown on Plate 86, Figs. 7 and 8. The ground colour, usually pale green, is sometimes almost white, but more frequently it is tinged with greyish brown, thus leading up to the blackish ab. _infuscata_, Prout (Figs. 9, 10).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 88.

1. ROYAL MANTLE.

2-4. SHOULDER-STRIPE.

5, 6. BARBERRY CARPET.

7, 8. THE STREAMER.

9, 10. THE FLAME.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 89.

1, 1a. SHOULDER-STRIPE: _caterpillar and chrysalis_.

2, 2a. STREAMER: _eggs and caterpillars_.

{215} The caterpillar is brownish grey, or purplish grey, dotted with black and dappled with dark brown; of the three lines along the back, the central one is black and swells out on the middle of each ring, the others are pale; a clear stripe of the ground colour below the black spiracles, and a slender line above them. The general colour is sometimes pale pinky brown or ochreous. It feeds on alder throughout the summer and autumn, and may be found in its domicile of spun-together dry leaves even in November, and sometimes later. Occasionally, a few caterpillars will feed up quickly, and attain the moth state in July or August, but the bulk do not become chrysalids until later in the year, and the moths emerge therefrom in May and early June. (Plate 87, Fig. 2.)

The species seems to occur, more or less freely, wherever there are alders throughout the greater part of the British Isles.

Abroad, the range extends to Eastern Siberia and Amurland.

RUDDY HIGHFLYER (_Hydriomena ruberata_).

This species is most readily distinguished from the last by the short oblique black streak on the tips of the rather narrower fore wings; there are also black streaks between the veins and below the tips of the wings, as in the last species, but they are generally shorter and often hardly traceable.

The ground colour ranges from pale grey (sometimes with a green tinge), through brownish grey to reddish brown; usually central and outer marginal bands of a darker shade are present, but these characters may be very indistinct or entirely lost in the general coloration. (Plate 86, Figs. 11 and 12.)

The caterpillar is pale brown, dappled with grey; three dark greyish lines along the back; spiracles and the usual dots black, the latter with fine hairs; head, reddish brown, plates on first and last rings of the body light brown. It feeds, at night, during the summer and autumn, on sallow and willow, spinning together the leaves at the top of a twig to form a retreat during the day. {216}

The moth is found in hedges, woods, and on heaths, in May and June; it may be occasionally beaten out of sallow bushes, but flies in the early evening, and is then more readily obtained. The species is widely distributed, but not generally common, in England and Wales, and in Scotland to Perthshire and probably further north, as it is found in Orkney, where specimens are numerous but rather small in size, and the caterpillars, according to McArthur, feed on heather as well as on sallow.

Decidedly uncommon in Ireland, but it has been met with, in most instances singly, in Armagh, Tyrone, Westmeath, Kerry, Galway, and Sligo.

ROYAL MANTLE (_Anticlea cucullata_).

This species (Plate 88, Fig. 1) is also known as _sinuata_, Hubner. The white fore wings have a blackish patch at the base and a blackish mark on the front margins beyond the middle; the former is separated into two parts by a pale reddish-brown band, and there is a reddish band, most distinct on the front area, beyond the black mark; in some specimens these bands are greyish.

The caterpillar is green, sometimes inclining to yellowish, with two black or purplish stripes, enclosing a broader pale yellow one, along the back; head, green, freckled with black. It feeds on the flowers of bedstraw (_Galium mollugo_, and _G. verum_), in July and August, or later in some seasons.

The moth is out in late June and in July, and occasionally may be disturbed from its food plant or the surrounding herbage. About dusk it is on the wing, and later is attracted by light. It seems to occur in most of the English counties from Kent to Cornwall; also in Berks., Oxon., Herts, and the eastern counties. Always local, and except in the east, where it is found in the Breck-sand area, most frequent in chalky localities. Barrett notes a specimen from Knowle, Warwickshire, and there are at {217} least two records from Scotland (Perthshire). In Ireland, Mr. W. F. de V. Kane took one example from a wall in co. Clare, and another has been recorded from Galway.

The range of the species abroad extends to Siberia and Amurland; and it is represented in Corea and j.a.pan by _A. yokohamae_, Butler.

THE SHOULDER STRIPE (_Anticlea badiata_).

The ground colour of the fore wings is pale ochreous brown, inclining to whitish; there are three dark-edged black cross-lines, the first of them sharply bent below the front margin, the second is rather oblique, and the third is wavy and often not clearly defined towards the inner margin; the outer marginal area is broadly bordered with pale reddish brown or dark purplish brown, there is a black streak from the more or less indistinct, whitish submarginal line to the tips of the wings, and a white mark about the middle of the line; the ground colour is most in evidence on the central area of the wings, but even here it is frequently reduced to a slender band, or occasionally only a patch near the front margin of the wing. (Plate 88, Figs. 2-4.)

The caterpillar (Plate 89, Fig. 1) is green, inclining to yellow between the rings; the spiracles are black, and there is sometimes a pinkish brown or purplish stripe along their area. Varies in general colour, and also in marking. It feeds, at night, on wild rose, and may be beaten from the bushes from May to July. When full grown it forms an oval coc.o.o.n in the earth, and therein changes to a chrysalis (Plate 89, Fig. 1a), which is dark reddish brown, inclining to blackish on the thorax, wing-cases, and the front edges of the body rings.

The moth appears in March and April, and may be obtained from almost any hedgerow, where wild rose is plentiful, throughout the British Isles, except that it seems not to extend north of Moray in Scotland. {218}

BARBERRY CARPET (_Anticlea berberata_).

The fore wings are greyish or whitish, tinged with grey; there are two dark-edged black lines on the basal half, and a black line beyond the middle of the wings; the latter has a conspicuous tooth in its upper half, but the lower wavy half is indistinct; there is a black streak in the tip of the wing. (Plate 88, Figs. 5, 6.)

The stout and roughened caterpillar is brown, with indistinct darker stripes along the back; the head is brown, checkered with darker brown. It feeds, in June and July, on barberry (_Berberis vulgaris_); there is a second brood in late August and September.

The moth is out in May and early June, and again in August. Although it certainly has been noted from other parts of England, the species seems at present to be confined to the eastern counties. Barrett gives Somerset also.

THE FLAME (_Anticlea rubidata_).

The markings on the reddish fore wings of this species (Plate 88, Figs. 9 and 10) are somewhat similar to those of the last mentioned, but there is no black streak in the tips of the wings, and the upper part of the outer black line is not toothed. The lower central area is often greyish, and the reddish ground colour is sometimes obscured.

The caterpillar is pale brown, sometimes greyish or greenish tinged, with obscure darker diamond-shaped marks on the back; a black central line, indistinct on the middle rings; under side striped and lined with pale and dark brown; head, with a black V-shaped mark. It feeds, in July and early August, on bedstraw (_Galium mollugo_ and _G. verum_), and will eat cleavers or goosegra.s.s (_G. aparine_) in confinement.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 90.

1. BLOMER'S RIVULET: _caterpillar_.

2. SMALL WHITE WAVE: _caterpillar_.

3. HAWORTH'S PUG: _caterpillar_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 91.

1, 3. DINGY Sh.e.l.l.

2, 4. SMALL YELLOW WAVE.

5, 6. SMALL WHITE WAVE.

7, 9. WAVED CARPET.

8, 10. BLOMER'S RIVULET.

{219}

The moth flies in June and July, and in the daytime may be readily disturbed from hedges in localities on the chalk in the southern half of England and Wales, especially in the seaboard counties from Kent to Cornwall. It has been recorded from Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and once from the Isle of Arran (_Entom._ xv. 250).

THE STREAMER (_Anticlea nigrofasciaria_).

The two examples of this species depicted on Plate 88 show the ordinary form with the central area of the fore wings greyish brown (Fig. 7, Ess.e.x), and a New Forest specimen in which the central area is whitish (Fig. 8).

The long caterpillar is green, inclining to yellowish between the rings; a purplish, or reddish-brown, stripe along the back is broken up into spots on the middle rings. It feeds on the flowers and leaves of wild rose, and can be found or beaten out in May and June. (Plate 89, Figs. 2, larva, 2a, ova.)

The moth is out in April and early May, and is often seen at rest on palings, etc., but it occurs chiefly in hedgerows, along which it flies at dusk.

This species (also known as _derivata_, Borkhausen) is pretty well distributed over England, Wales, and Scotland up to Sutherlandshire. In Ireland it seems to be local.

DINGY Sh.e.l.l (_Euchoeca obliterata_).