{197} The caterpillar is brown or olive-brown, dotted and freckled with white; three lines on the back, the central one black, the others whitish, not seen on rings 5-8, which have dark V-shaped marks enclosing white ones; sometimes there is a V-mark instead of lines on ring 4; head, large, pale brown sprinkled with blackish, and marked with a blackish V, the apex of which appears to meet the central line of the body. It feeds, at night, in July and August, on bedstraw (_Galium mollugo_, and _G. verum_), but will thrive very well on cleavers or goose-grass (_G. aparine_). The chrysalis, which is enclosed in a cocoon of silk coated with earth, is reddish brown, thorax and wing-cases paler, shining. A coloured drawing of the caterpillar, kindly lent, with others, for this volume, by Mr. A. Sich, has been used for the figures on Plate 79, Figs. 2, 2a; but the description of the caterpillar, and also of the chrysalis (Fig. 2b), are from material that Mr. Pope, of Exeter, was good enough to furnish. In captivity a second brood may be reared in August. The moth is out in July and early August, and although local, is not uncommon in bushy places on downs, etc., also in lanes, in chalk districts, in most of the southern and eastern counties. In the north of England it is far more local and uncommon, but is known to occur in Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland, and has been recorded from Durham. It is found in Wales, and in Scotland has been noted as very local in Roxburghshire and rare in Clydesdale and Arran. Kane states that in Ireland it is "very rare and local." COMMON CARPET (_Xanthorhoe_ (_Epirrhoe_) _sociata_). The white ground colour of this species is nearly always obscured, to a greater or lesser extent, by greyish markings and suffusions on the basal area; the outer margin is broadly bordered with dark grey, and the white band between this and the dark-grey central band is intersected throughout its length by a grey line. As shown on Plate 81, Figs. 6, 7, the central band varies in width; it is often contracted below the middle, sometimes completely severed at this point, and in ab. _degenerata_, {198} Haworth, both portions are much reduced in width. Figs. 8 and 9 represent two specimens from the Isle of Lewis; these brownish-grey examples are var. _obscurata_, South. There are intermediate modifications leading up to a form in which the whole of the central third of the fore wings is whitish, with the usual cross lines dingy grey, and some tiny clouds of the same colour around the black discal spot. The caterpillar is very like that of the last species referred to, but it is rather smaller in size and rougher in appearance. There is variation in the general colour, from pale fawn through greenish-brown, to dull or bright green, and sometimes the markings are tinged with reddish (Hellins).