The Moths of the British Isles, Second Series: Comprising the Families Noctuidæ to HepialidæSouth, Richard
History
The Moths of the British Isles, Second Series: Comprising the Families Noctuidæ to Hepialidæ
South, Richard
Lepidoptera -- Great Britain; Moths -- Great Britain
As a British species it was first recorded by Weaver, who obtained it in
the Isle of Arran in 1841; but Edleston, writing in 1842, states that he
had taken specimens off stone walls near Staley Bridge, in the Manchester
district, "every year for the last three years." It appears to be peculiar
to the British Isles and is found in suitable localities from North
Staffs., through Cheshire, Lancs., Yorks., and northwards over England and
Scotland to the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Ireland it is known to occur
in Antrim, Derry, Mayo, Galway, and Limerick.
THE WELSH WAVE (_Venusia cambrica_).
This moth, of which two portraits are given on Plate 78, Figs. 9 [male], 10
[female], is known also by the English name of "Cambric Wave." It was not
ascertained to be an inhabitant of Britain until 1839, when it was figured
and described by Curtis from specimens obtained in Cardiganshire in Wales.
{191}
In its typical form the fore wings are white, inclining to greyish, with a
number of brownish or dark-grey cross lines; two pairs on the central area
are marked with black. Sometimes the wings are greatly suffused with smoky
grey, and this tint in examples from the Sheffield and Rotherham districts
of Yorkshire assumes a much darker hue, so that all the markings are
obscured, but the veins are blacker.
The caterpillar is green, marked with some irregular reddish blotches; a
yellowish line along the back. It feeds in August, earlier or later in some
seasons, on mountain ash (_Pyrus aucuparia_), and the moth, which rests by
day on tree-trunks, is out in July and early August. The haunts of the
species are chiefly in hilly localities of the northern counties of
England, but it has also been reported from Gloucestershire (Cotswolds),
Somersetshire (Weston-super-Mare), and Devon (Dulverton). In Wales it
occurs in Merionethshire, as well as in Cardiganshire; and in Scotland it
spreads from Roxburghshire, where it is locally common among mountain ash,
through Clydesdale to Inverness. It is widely distributed in Ireland. The
range abroad extends to Japan and North America.
GREY MOUNTAIN CARPET (_Entephria caesiata_)
The typical greyish form, with blackish wavy cross lines and dark central
band, is shown on Plate 80, Fig. 1 [male] and 2 [female]. Figure 3
represents a specimen from Shetland in which the band is sooty black (ab.
_annosata_, Zetterstedt = _nigristriaria_, Gregson). The interesting
blackish suffused form from the Isle of Arran (Fig. 4) leads up to a still
blacker variety, occurring in the same isle, and also in the Shetlands, in
which the whole of the fore wings is nearly as dark as the central band of
Fig. 3, and the hind wings are also much darkened; such specimens are
referable to ab. _glaciata_, Germar. Ab. _prospicuata_, Prout = _gelata_,
Staud., is a form with the fore wings whitish, and the {192} base and the
central band thereof blackish; some Shetland specimens closely approach
this pretty variety.
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