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 sexes of this species are shown on Plate 150, Figs. 3 [male], 6
[female]. The general colour of the fore wings may be paler or darker than
in the specimens shown. Sometimes the central area enclosed by the black
cross lines is darker than the other parts of the fore wings; var.
_obscura_, Tutt, has the fore wings obscure smoky grey, with a dull coppery
tinge, much suffused with dark scales; markings indistinct.
The caterpillar is pale brown freckled with darker; a whitish line along
the middle of the back is edged on both sides with blackish merging into
black at the ring divisions; a rather wavy, but less distinct, whitish line
on each side of the central one edged above with blackish; spiracles black
ringed with pale brown and set in a broad dark brown line below which the
colour is pinkish; head shining pale brown, freckled with darker on the
cheeks. It feeds on cocksfoot and various other grasses occurring in
woodlands. August to May. The moth, which inhabits woods and well-timbered
parks, is out in June and July. It is, perhaps, most frequent in the New
Forest, Hampshire, thence it is found more or less sparingly to Cornwall.
Sometimes not uncommon in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, and occurs in
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex (Epping Forest, etc.), Surrey (Richmond
Park). Recorded from Cheshire and from South Wales. In Scotland it is said
to have been taken at Newfield, Ayrshire. The only records from Ireland are
Clonbrock (1), and Merlin Park, Galway (2). Abroad it ranges to Amurland,
China, Corea and Japan.
TREBLE LINES (_Meristis_ (_Grammesia_) _trigrammica_).
The fore wings range in colour from whitish or greyish brown to ochreous
brown; the cross lines are usually distinct, {315} and the central one is
often broad. (Plate 151, Fig. 1.) In var. _approximans_, Haw., the cross
lines fall nearer together on the inner margin; and in var. _semi-fuscans_,
Haw., the basal half is greyish or reddish grey, and the outer half is
suffused with brownish (Fig. 2). Then there is a somewhat rarer form, with
dark grey, brown, or blackish brown fore wings, with the cross lines more
or less distinct, as in Fig. 3; or with the central one absent (var.
_bilinea_, Hübn.); or all the lines may be obscured by the dark colour.
Kane states that var. _obscura_, Tutt (= _bilinea_, Haw.), is pretty common
at Howth and other places in Ireland, and, according to Barrett, it is not
infrequent in Wales. The caterpillar is greyish or dingy reddish brown;
three pale lines on the back, the central one partly edged with black, and
the outer ones are broken and inwardly edged with blackish marks; the
stripe along the black spiracles is ochreous brown; head brownish. From
July to April on plantain and other low plants. The moth is out in June and
July. In Scotland it is local and rare, but has been recorded from
Clydesdale, Arran, and once from Perthshire. Local but widely distributed
in Ireland.
THE ANOMALOUS (_Stilbia anomala_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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