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
The moth is found in hedges, woods, and on heaths, in May and June; it may
be occasionally beaten out of sallow bushes, but flies in the early
evening, and is then more readily obtained. The species is widely
distributed, but not generally common, in England and Wales, and in
Scotland to Perthshire and probably further north, as it is found in
Orkney, where specimens are numerous but rather small in size, and the
caterpillars, according to McArthur, feed on heather as well as on sallow.
Decidedly uncommon in Ireland, but it has been met with, in most instances
singly, in Armagh, Tyrone, Westmeath, Kerry, Galway, and Sligo.
ROYAL MANTLE (_Anticlea cucullata_).
This species (Plate 88, Fig. 1) is also known as _sinuata_, Hubner. The
white fore wings have a blackish patch at the base and a blackish mark on
the front margins beyond the middle; the former is separated into two parts
by a pale reddish-brown band, and there is a reddish band, most distinct on
the front area, beyond the black mark; in some specimens these bands are
greyish.
The caterpillar is green, sometimes inclining to yellowish, with two black
or purplish stripes, enclosing a broader pale yellow one, along the back;
head, green, freckled with black. It feeds on the flowers of bedstraw
(_Galium mollugo_, and _G. verum_), in July and August, or later in some
seasons.
The moth is out in late June and in July, and occasionally may be disturbed
from its food plant or the surrounding herbage. About dusk it is on the
wing, and later is attracted by light. It seems to occur in most of the
English counties from Kent to Cornwall; also in Berks., Oxon., Herts, and
the eastern counties. Always local, and except in the east, where it is
found in the Breck-sand area, most frequent in chalky localities. Barrett
notes a specimen from Knowle, Warwickshire, and there are at {217} least
two records from Scotland (Perthshire). In Ireland, Mr. W. F. de V. Kane
took one example from a wall in co. Clare, and another has been recorded
from Galway.
The range of the species abroad extends to Siberia and Amurland; and it is
represented in Corea and Japan by _A. yokohamae_, Butler.
THE SHOULDER STRIPE (_Anticlea badiata_).
The ground colour of the fore wings is pale ochreous brown, inclining to
whitish; there are three dark-edged black cross-lines, the first of them
sharply bent below the front margin, the second is rather oblique, and the
third is wavy and often not clearly defined towards the inner margin; the
outer marginal area is broadly bordered with pale reddish brown or dark
purplish brown, there is a black streak from the more or less indistinct,
whitish submarginal line to the tips of the wings, and a white mark about
the middle of the line; the ground colour is most in evidence on the
central area of the wings, but even here it is frequently reduced to a
slender band, or occasionally only a patch near the front margin of the
wing. (Plate 88, Figs. 2-4.)
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