The Moths of the British Isles, First Series: Comprising the Families Sphingidæ to NoctuidæSouth, Richard
History
The Moths of the British Isles, First Series: Comprising the Families Sphingidæ to Noctuidæ
South, Richard
Lepidoptera -- Great Britain; Moths -- Great Britain
The more usual form of the male and the female are shown on Plate 105
(Figs. 7[male], 8[female]). The colour varies from pale brown to a whitish
or greyish brown tint in one direction, and to reddish or blackish brown in
another. The cross lines, generally well defined, are sometimes absent, or
nearly so, in some of the pale forms, and much obscured in the dark forms.
The black outlined reniform and orbicular stigmata are sometimes obscured
by a blackish cloud; the pale-centred, club-like mark below them varies in
length, and is occasionally reduced to a small spot. "_Noctua subfusca_,"
Haworth, has been determined by Mr. E. R. Bankes, who possesses the type,
to be an obscurely marked fuscous [male] example of this species. The
greyish brown, rather rough-looking caterpillar, is freckled with a darker
tint above, and inclined to greenish below; a fine, pale line along the
middle of the back is edged with brownish, and on each side there is a pale
line, edged above with brown, and below this a double pale line; head
marked with blackish (Plate 109, Fig. 1). It feeds from March to April,
after hibernation, on various low-growing plants, including goose-foot
(_Chenopodium_), persicaria, knotgrass, dock, and clover. The moth is on
the wing in June and July, and very occasionally in September. It is rather
a common insect in eastern and southern counties bordering the sea, but
extends into Surrey, and occasionally into Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, and
Berkshire; and is also found more or less frequently in Herefordshire,
Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. In
Scotland it occurs in Ayr, and on the eastern side to Moray. It has been
taken in various {204} counties, on the coast, of Ireland from Cork to
Sligo, and from Wicklow to Derry.
THE LIGHT FEATHERED RUSTIC (_Agrotis_ (_Euxoa_) _cinerea_).
Both sexes are shown in their typical forms on Plate 105. The fore wings of
the male (Fig. 9) are generally pale greyish in colour, with blackish cross
lines and central shade; the claviform mark is absent, and the orbicular
stigma usually so, or represented by a dusky dot; sometimes the ground
colour is brownish, occasionally purplish grey, and very rarely black. The
female (Fig. 10) is smaller, and always much darker.
The caterpillar is blackish green or dark greyish, with three fine pale
lines, the central one edged on both sides, and the others edged above,
with a darker tint; a pale stripe along the black spiracles; head, and
plate on first ring black. It feeds on wild thyme, and is said to eat dock.
It hatches from the egg in late June or early July, and presumably
hibernates when full grown, as it does not seem to feed again when it
reappears in early spring.
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