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 moth is out in May and early June, and again from late July well into
August. Sometimes it may be seen resting on a leaf in a hedgerow. When
disturbed in the daytime, which may happen where one is beating the bushes,
it falls, rather than flies, to the ground. At night it may be netted as it
flies along the hedgeside or wood borders in almost every county of England
and Wales. In Scotland its range seems not to extend north of Clydesdale.
Kane states that it is "widely spread, but not generally at all numerous"
in Ireland.
[Illustration]
Pl. 70.
1. OAK HOOK-TIP: _caterpillar_.
2, 2a, 2b, 2c. BARRED HOOK-TIP: _egg, enlarged; caterpillar, chrysalis
and cocoon_.
[Illustration]
Pl. 71.
1. OAK HOOK-TIP, _male_; 2 _female_.
3. BARRED HOOK-TIP, _male_; 4 _female_.
5, 7. SCALLOPED HOOK-TIP, _males_; 6, 8 _females_.
9. CHINESE CHARACTER, _male_; 10 _female_.
{139}
NOLIDÆ.
Some thirteen or fourteen species occurring in Europe are referred by
Staudinger to this family. Only five of these occur in the British Isles.
The moths are of rather small size, less, in fact, than some of the
so-called "Micros," among which they have been placed. Probably they may,
for this reason, be overlooked. They mostly sit head downwards on the
trunks, branches, or leaves of trees, sometimes on palings, but the rarer
ones hide themselves among the thick, low herbage. The time of flight is
after dark, and the moths occasionally visit the sugar patch. The
caterpillar has only eight false legs (prolegs), the first pair being the
absent ones; the body is clothed with tufts of hair, the hairs of the front
and rear tufts longer than the others. When full grown it spins a more or
less spindle-shaped, toughish cocoon of silk mixed with the larval hairs,
which is usually coated with particles scraped from the surface of twig or
stem upon which it is spun up.
THE SHORT-CLOAKED MOTH (_Nola cucullatella_).
The fore wings are whitish or greyish, with a dark, almost black, patch at
the base; this patch is marked with whitish, and is limited by the first
cross line, which is black and curved; the second line, also black, is wavy
and curved inwards towards the front margin; between these lines is a dusky
central shade, commencing in a blackish spot on the front margin, and
sometimes forming an inward border to the second line; a raised tuft of
white, grey-capped scales on the basal patch, and two other tufts beyond it
and in a line with the front margin; hind wings dark grey, paler towards
the base (Plate 73).
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