The long caterpillar is variable in general colour, brown, mottled with greyish, pale grey, reddish brown, or yellowish green; all have darker or whitish lines along the back, and whitish or pinkish triangles or X-marks. It feeds, in May and June (earlier in some localities, and later in others), on bilberry, crowberry, and sallow; it may also be reared on willow. [Illustration] 2 Pl. 64. 1. DARK UMBER: _caterpillar_. 2. NETTED CARPET: _caterpillar_. [Illustration] 2 Pl. 65. 1, 2. THE SPINACH. 3-5. BARRED STRAW. 6, 7. BARRED YELLOW. 8-10. BROKEN-BARRED CARPET. {167} The moth is out in July and August, and may be found on the leaves and among the sprays of _Vaccinium myrtillus_ growing in woodlands (especially the more ancient), bogs, and moorlands. The species is widely spread, and generally abundant in suitable districts, over the greater part of the British Isles; but it seems to be more or less casual in England south of the Midlands, although its range runs through Gloucestershire and Somerset into Devon. In the last-named county it sometimes swarms at Martinhoe, on the edge of Exmoor. The distribution abroad includes Eastern Siberia, Amurland, Labrador, and North America. THE SPINACH (_Lygris associata_). The fore wings are pale ochreous, more or less clouded with darker; three brownish cross lines. Hind wings, paler, with indication of cross lines on the inner margin. Fringes of all the wings chequered with brown, most distinct on the fore wings. (Plate 65, Figs. 1, 2.) The long caterpillar is green, inclining to yellowish; three lines along the back, the central one dark green and the others whitish; there is also a whitish line low down along the sides. It feeds at night, in May and June, on currant (_Ribes rubrum_ and _R. nigrum_), and may be found on the underside of a leaf in the daytime. (Figured on Plate 67, Fig. 1, from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich.) During July and August the moth flies in the evening, and after dark it often comes to any bright illumination. It is essentially a garden insect, and where currant bushes are there also spinach is often grown; hence it was probably connected with the vegetable rather than the fruit when Haworth named it _spinachiata_. The species seems to be found more or less frequently in suitable spots through England. In Wales it has {168} been recorded from Glamorganshire, and from Rhyl, Flintshire; in Scotland, Renton states that it is common in Roxburgh gardens; and it is also noted from Paisley. It has been doubtfully recorded from Ireland. The range abroad extends to Amurland. BARRED STRAW (_Cidaria pyraliata_).