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
2 Pl. 95.
1. PIMPINEL PUG.
4. THYME PUG.
7. BLEACHED PUG.
3, 6, 10. WORMWOOD PUG.
9. CURRANT PUG.
2, 12. LING PUG.
5. CAMPANULA PUG.
8, 11. JASIONE PUG.
{227} The long, slightly roughened caterpillar is green, inclining to
yellowish, especially between the rings; reddish marks on the back
connected by a slender line of the same colour; head, green, flecked with
reddish. It feeds, on apple, eating flowers and leaves, in May and June.
Also said to eat hawthorn and sloe. The moth is out in April and May, but
it is rarely met with in the open. If, however, one is lucky enough to
capture a female, and fertile eggs are obtained, moths should hardly fail
to result. From these the stock might go on increasing year by year for
quite a long period. Ten specimens presented to the National Collection of
British Lepidoptera in 1904, by the late Mrs. Hutchinson, were bred in
April of the previous year, and were the direct descendants of a female
captured in 1874, at Grantsfield, Herefordshire.
Other counties in England from which the species has been recorded
are--Worcester (Birchwood), Gloucester, Somerset, Wilts., Hants (Hayling
Island), Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Berks., Bucks., Huntingdon, Cambridge (once
bred from mixed larvae beaten from hawthorn on the "Gogs"), Suffolk (beaten
from hawthorn at Brandon, Tuddenham, etc.), and Norfolk.
As _insigniata_, Hubner, is claimed to be at least two years older than
_consignata_, Borkhausen, the former name will have to be adopted for this
species.
NETTED PUG (_Eupithecia venosata_).
This moth has also been named by the old authors "the Pretty Widow Moth."
On Plate 93 are shown four examples; the typical form (Fig. 2), in which
the fore wings are pale greyish, with black cross lines, two of which are
edged with whitish; var. _fumosae_, Gregson = _nubilata_, Bohatsch (Fig.
5)--the Shetland race--is brownish grey, with the markings obscure; Fig. 8
{228} represents a variegated modification of the last form, for which the
name _bandanae_ was proposed by Gregson; Fig. 11 depicts another specimen,
which in its light-brown colour closely approaches the Orkney form var.
_ochracae_, Gregson = _orcadensis_, Prout.
Specimens from North Devon have a rather darker tone of the typical
coloration, and those from North Wales and from Ireland incline to
brownish.
The rather stumpy caterpillar is greyish brown above, and pale greenish or
yellowish below; three darker brown lines along the back; head, blackish.
It is found from late June to early August, in the seed capsules of
catchfly (_Silene inflate_, _S. maritima_, etc.). Plate 92, Fig. 4, from a
coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich.
The moth is out in May and June, and is widely distributed over the British
Isles.
PIMPINEL PUG (_Eupithecia pimpinellata_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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