The Moths of the British Isles Volume Ii Part 51

The caterpillar, according to Fenn, is variable in colour and markings, all shades of brown, greenish brown, ochreous, purple, and grey; in some examples there are pale diamonds, and in others whitish spots, along the back. It feeds on ling and heath, and will eat clover, trefoils, broom, etc.: July and August, and occasionally September. The moth is out in May and June, and sometimes there are specimens on the wing in August. Abundant on almost every heath throughout the British Isles, except in the Shetlands.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 142.

1. V-MOTH: _caterpillar_.

2. YELLOW BELLE: _caterpillars_.

3. BORDERED GREY: _caterpillar_.

4. GREY SCALLOPED BAR: _caterpillar_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 143.

1, 2. BORDERED GREY.

3. V-MOTH.

4, 5. RANNOCH LOOPER.

6. BROWN SILVER-LINE.

7-9. LATTICED HEATH.

{325}

BORDERED WHITE (_Bupalus piniaria_).

Two forms of the male of this species are represented on Plate 141. Fig. 9 shows the yellow English form (ab. _flavescens_, White), and Fig. 10 the white North English and Scotch forms. In southern localities, however, specimens occur which are almost as white as the northern or even Scotch examples; I have two such specimens from Surrey. There is considerable variation in the size of area occupied by the pale colour, both in white and yellow forms. In one of the former, from Forres, in Scotland, the white is represented by a small oval spot and dappled streak on the fore wings; an entirely black specimen (ab. _nigricarius_, Backhaus) has been noted from Berks.h.i.+re. In other specimens there is an unusually large proportion of pale colour. The females are usually orange, or orange yellow, in the south (Fig. 8); and yellowish brown, or dingy orange brown, in the north.

The brownish-coloured females occasionally occur in the south, and the brighter form of this s.e.x is sometimes taken in the Midlands, where the two forms of the species seem to overlap.

The long, greenish caterpillar is marked with whitish or yellow lines; those along the back are edged with black, and along the sides with dark green. It feeds from August to October on the needles of the pine, and also on other firs. (Plate 140, Fig. 3; Fig. 3a shows a photo of the chrysalis, twice natural size, by Mr. H. Main.) The moth is out in May and June, later in the north; it is generally common in pine woods throughout England, Wales, and Scotland.

BORDERED GREY (_Selidosema ericetaria_).

Portraits of the male and female of this species (known also as _plumaria_) will be found on Plate 143, Figs. 1 [male], 2 [female]. The cross markings are more distinct in some specimens than in others, and the central one of the fore wings varies in width. {326}

The caterpillar (Plate 142, Fig. 3, from a photograph by Mr. H. Main) is grey, with a dark-brown or blackish irregular double line along the back, and pale lines along the sides, the lower one edged above with reddish brown; spiracles, black, as also are the dots on the back; the last ring ends in a point. (Adapted from Porritt.) It feeds on ling (_Calluna_), from September well on into the following spring.

The moth occurs on heaths and mosses in July and August, but it is local.

On warm days the males are very active, but about dusk they are not difficult to capture. In southern England, the New Forest, Hants, appears to be its special home, but it is also found in other parts of that county, including the Isle of Wight, in Dorsets.h.i.+re, and in Surrey; also noted from Berks.h.i.+re. It is scarce in Ches.h.i.+re, fairly common on the Witherslack mosses in North Lancas.h.i.+re, and at Ullswater in c.u.mberland. Except that it has been recorded from the Isle of Arran (1882), it does not seem to have been noted in Scotland. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and is abundant at Kinsale, co. Cork.

THE V-MOTH (_Thamnonoma_ (_Itame_) _wauari_).

The popular name of this species (Plate 143, Fig. 3) refers to the black discal mark on the more or less violet-tinged pale, greyish fore wings; but there is a good deal of variation in this character. Occasionally the wings are suffused with smoky (ab. _vau-nigraria_, Hatchett), or more rarely with blackish brown (ab. _fuscaria_, Thunberg).

On Plate 142 is a figure of the caterpillar, from a coloured drawing by Mr.

A. Sich. The general colour is greenish, or some shade of brown; the lines on the back are white, and that low down along the sides is broad, and yellow; the raised dots are black with short bristles. It feeds in April, May, and June on the foliage of gooseberry and currant, and is especially fond of the tender shoots. {327}

The moth, which is out in July and August, is often common in gardens and orchards where bush fruit is grown, pretty well throughout the United Kingdom. It appears to occur only rarely in Ireland.

Abroad, the range extends to Amurland, and a form is found in Labrador.

RANNOCH LOOPER (_Thamnonoma brunneata_).

All the wings are of a rusty ochreous colour, sometimes, chiefly in the male, inclining to a purplish tint on the fore wings; the brownish cross lines are usually most distinct in the female, which s.e.x Hubner figured as _pinetaria_. (Plate 143, Figs. 4 [male], 5 [female].)

The caterpillar is reddish brown, with a black-edged dark-green irregular line along the middle of the back; a white line on each side of the central one, and following this are a dark-brown shade-like stripe and some brownish-green lines; the line along the spiracles is whitish, inclining to yellow. In general appearance it closely resembles a twig of bilberry (_Vaccinium_), upon the foliage of which plant the caterpillar feeds in the spring.

The moth is out in June and July, but in the British Isles it is only to be obtained in Perths.h.i.+re and northwards in Scotland. Black-wood, Loch Rannoch, is the original, and a now well-known, locality for this species, which Curtis in 1828 figured as _Speranza sylvaria_.

The range abroad extends to Amurland and j.a.pan, and to North America.

BROWN SILVER-LINE (_Lozogramma_ (_Phasiane_) _petraria_).

The two cross lines on the pale-brown, sometimes pinkish, fore wings, are edged with whitish, but this is most distinct on {328} the outer one. In some specimens there is a distinct submarginal line, but this character is only faintly in evidence as a rule, and occasionally it is entirely absent.

(Plate 143, Fig. 6.)

The caterpillar feeds in June, sometimes earlier, on bracken or brake-fern (_Pteris aquilina_). It is olive green marked with reddish brown lines, and there is a whitish line under the black spiracles.

In most English and Welsh localities where bracken is plentiful, this moth should be found in May and June; also in the south of Scotland, but its occurrence in that country north of Clydesdale appears to be only casual.

It is common in several parts of Ireland.

The distribution abroad includes Amurland and j.a.pan.

LATTICED HEATH (_Chiasmia_ (_Strenia_) _clathrata_).

In its ground colour this species (Plate 143, Figs. 7, 8 [male], 9 [female]) varies from ochreous of some shade to white. The dark-brown or blackish cross lines and veins give a latticed appearance to the wings, hence both the Latin and popular names for this insect. There is much variation in the width of the cross markings; sometimes two or more unite and so form bands; more rarely, perhaps, the outer lines are absent, and the others broken up into dashes; or the blackish cross lines may be slender and the veins remain of the ochreous ground colour (ab. _radiata_, Haworth). A less frequent aberration has the wings dark brown or blackish all over, except a row of whitish or ochreous spots on the outer margins (ab. _nocturnata_, Fuchs = _nigricans_, Oberthur).

The caterpillar, which feeds on clovers and trefoils, is green, with white lines along the back and sides; the slightly notched head is rather glossy, and the mouth is brownish: June to September, in two broods.

The first generation of the moth is out in April and May, and {329} the second in July and August. It may be found in clover fields and on chalk slopes, etc., where the food plants flourish; although it is an active day flyer, it is not difficult to capture with the net. It is most plentiful in southern and eastern England, but its range extends throughout the United Kingdom to Clydesdale, and the species is widely distributed in Ireland.

The distribution abroad extends to East Siberia, Amurland, and j.a.pan.

GREY SCALLOPED BAR (_Scodiona f.a.garia_).

In its typical form this species (also known as _belgiaria_, Hubner) is grey, more or less tinged with ochreous, speckled with brownish grey, and crossed by black-marked brownish-grey lines. The bulk of British specimens, especially those from southern localities, are whitish grey, thinly sprinkled with darker grey scales in the male, and sometimes heavily powdered in the female; a pair are figured on Plate 144, 1 [male], 2 [female]. The whiter form of the male, occurring in Britain chiefly in the New Forest, Hamps.h.i.+re, has been named _albidaria_, Staudinger.

The roughened caterpillar is figured on Plate 142 (photo by H. Main). In general colour it is dingy brown, with a whitish stripe along the back and some greyish marking on the sides. It feeds on ling and heath; growing slowly in the late summer, but more quickly in the spring, after hibernation, when it may be obtained at night from the tips of the heather twigs, either by searching or by means of the sweeping net. The moth is out in June and July in the south, and later in the north. It is found on moist heaths, moors, and mosses; when resting on the dark-coloured earth it so closely resembles a stone that it is probably frequently pa.s.sed unnoticed.

The species is apparently more plentiful in the New Forest than in its other known southern localities (Kent, Surrey, Berks.h.i.+re, Suss.e.x, and Dorset). Its range northwards in England {330} extends from Worcesters.h.i.+re (Malvern, rare) to c.u.mberland and Northumberland. It seems to be distributed over the greater part of Scotland, including the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Wales it has been recorded from Flint, Denbigh, and Carnarvon; and it is widely spread over Ireland, occurring chiefly on the bogs.

BLACK-VEINED MOTH (_Scoria lineata_).

This slightly ochreous tinged silky white moth has the veins of the wings blackish, and this is especially noticeable on the underside of the fore wings. A male specimen is shown on Plate 144, Fig. 3; the wings of the female are slightly smaller, and the body is stouter and shorter. This species is the _dealbata_ of Linnaeus, but _lineata_, Scopoli, is older by four years. The long caterpillar is greyish inclining to ochreous or brownish; several irregular darker lines on the back and sides. It feeds, in confinement, on knot-gra.s.s, dock, bird's-foot trefoil, etc., but in the open is said to eat wood gra.s.ses, such as _Brachypodium_, upon the blades of which the female moth has been seen to deposit eggs: July to May. The moth is out from late May through June; it flies in the suns.h.i.+ne, or rests among long gra.s.s, etc., from which it is readily disturbed. Its chief British haunts are in Kent (Higham, Wye, etc.); but it has been recorded from Suss.e.x, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucester, and Herefords.h.i.+re, chiefly in single specimens.

Abroad, the range extends to Amurland.

STRAW BELLE (_Aspilates gilvaria_).

This straw-coloured species (Plate 144, Fig. 4 [male], 6 [female]) will be easily recognised by the brownish stripe on the fore wings, which extends from the front margin, near the tip, almost to the inner {331} margin; this is sometimes faint, but rarely quite absent. The hind wings are paler and have a dusky central dot and incomplete band. The caterpillar, which in shape is somewhat similar to that of the next species, is ochreous grey inclining to pinkish on the sides; a dark almost blackish line along the middle of the back is edged on each side with pale ochreous, and there are other pale and dark lines along the sides. It feeds on thyme, cinquefoil, yarrow, and other low-growing plants; it may be reared on knot gra.s.s: September to June. The moth is out in July and August, and, although very local, is not uncommon on downs and hilly fields on the chalk in Kent and Surrey--Dover, Folkestone, and Rochester in the former county, and Leatherhead, Box Hill, and Reigate in the latter, are the best-known localities. It has also been reported from Suss.e.x (Brighton, Horsham, near Polgate, Sh.o.r.eham). In Devons.h.i.+re it is said to occur at Braunton and Ilfracombe, but is scarce. In his catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Suffolk (1890) the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield notes the species as very plentiful in clover fields about Tuddenham. Also recorded from Somerset, Gloucesters.h.i.+re, Ches.h.i.+re (West Kirby and Hale), and from near Harrow in Middles.e.x.

Very local and scarce in Ireland (Kane).