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
Of this pretty Scottish species (_alpina_, Westw. and Humph.) four examples
are figured in Plate 108. Figs. 1 and 2 represent specimens from Shetland,
and Figs. 4 and 5 are from Rannoch specimens. These will show something of
the variation in this {216} moth, which was not known to occur in the
British Isles until 1839, when a single specimen was taken on Cairn Gowr in
Perthshire. No other example seems to have been noted up to 1854, when one
was found on a rock in the same part of Perthshire. Up to the year 1876,
only a few specimens had been obtained, but in that year, which was a hot
and dry one in the Highlands, quite a number were secured. A female was
also detected laying her yellowish white eggs on crowberry (_Empetrum
nigrum_) and thus gave a clue which led to the subsequent discovery of
caterpillars and chrysalids; and these have been obtained in some quantity.
The caterpillar is reddish, inclining to pinkish brown, freckled with
darker; three whitish lines on the back, the central one irregularly black
dotted, edged on both sides with black, and the others with black bars
along their inside edge; head pale brown freckled and lined with darker
brown. It feeds from August to June (of the second year following hatching
from the egg, it is said), on crowberry, bilberry (_Vaccinium_), and
bearberry (_Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_).
The moth is out from late June until about the middle of August. It only
occurs with us on the higher mountains in Perthshire, notably those to the
south of Loch Rannoch; and at lower elevations in Unst, the most northern
isle of the Shetland group. It has also been recorded from the Orkneys.
Kane mentions a specimen bred at the end of February, 1893, at Clonbrock,
Co. Galway, from a caterpillar found at a bog in the vicinity, where
crowberry grows abundantly. Abroad the species in its typical form is found
on mountains in Central and Southern Scandinavia, and in modified form in
Silesia, Hungary, and Switzerland.
ASHWORTH'S RUSTIC (_Agrotis_ (_Episilia_) _ashworthii_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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