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
Three forms of this species occur with us. In that represented on Plate
128, Fig. 4, the fore wings are almost entirely {259} blackish. Another has
a larger portion of the inner marginal area ochreous brown, or whitish, ab.
_melaleuca_, Vieweg; a third form, and the least frequent, may be described
as pale ochreous brown with darker mottling on the basal half, and black
central markings representing a broken streak from the base of the wing to
the outer margin, in this form the pale outlined stigmata are fairly
distinct, and there is a blackish shade between them extending from the
front to the inner margin. From chrysalids obtained by digging under oak
and elm trees in a private park several miles from Taunton, Somerset, Mr.
H. Doidge (1901) reared moths and obtained eggs which were laid in a batch
on the covering of the cage in which the female was placed with a growing
plant of bird's-foot trefoil. The eggs hatched on May 31, ten days after
they were laid. The young caterpillars were purplish grey, but after
feeding on the yellow flowers they assumed the same colour. "After
finishing the flowers they commenced on the leaves, by which time they were
a pale green colour, with a yellow spiracular stripe, and were fond of
resting by day on the stems of the plant. As they approached the final
stage, the green became shaded with brown and black," and then resembled
the ripening seed pods. They were afterwards supplied with blackthorn, and
did not object to the change of food. They also ate dock (sparingly), and
_Trifolium minus_. "About July 8 they began to go under ground to pupate.
The pupæ, which were of a dark reddish-brown colour, and somewhat obese and
blunt, being enclosed in a very compact and brittle earthy cocoon"
(Doidge).
The moth is out in April and May, but is very local in England. It has
occasionally been found at rest on isolated tree trunks or on posts, but
very rarely captured in any other way. Specimens have been obtained from
chrysalids dug up now and then from about the roots of trees, but perhaps
most of the specimens in collections, not numerous altogether, have been
reared from eggs. In England the species is only known {260} to occur in
Kent, Surrey, Suffolk, Gloucester, Somersetshire, Worcestershire, and
Herefordshire. Barrett also mentions one specimen at Gower, South Wales.
THE BEAUTIFUL ARCHES (_Eumichtis_ (_Hadena_) _satura_).
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