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
A more or less typical but rather small male specimen is shown on Plate
114, Fig. 4, but the ground colour is frequently more tawny in tint, and
sometimes it is much paler inclining to yellowish; the cross lines may be
either wider apart, or closer together, and the inner one is often clouded
with blackish; sometimes both lines become almost bandlike; the
submarginal, usually interrupted, line is occasionally well defined. The
female, often browner than the specimen depicted (Fig. 5) is frequently
tinged with purple, and occasionally with pink.
The batch of eggs, as deposited, was photographed by Mr. Main. The egg is
olive green with a ring of pale specks around the micropylar end. The
caterpillar is slaty grey inclining to purplish, with a series of not
clearly defined ochreous diamonds on the back and a row of ochreous dots on
each side; the raised points on the last ring are tipped with reddish
(Plate 116). It feeds on oak, birch, poplar, sallow, apple, hawthorn, sloe,
etc. April to June. The moth is out in October and November, but is seldom
noticed in the daytime; at night, the males are frequently seen at gas and
electric light. The species is generally common in woodlands, especially as
caterpillars, over the southern half of England and Wales, and occurs more
or less frequently over the rest of the country, also in Scotland to Moray,
and in Ireland. {280}
SCALLOPED OAK (_Crocallis elinguaria_).
Fig. 6 on Plate 114 shows the usual form of this species, in which there
are blackish dots on the outer margins of all the wings. Fig. 7 depicts a
form with the ground colour paler, and the outer marginal dots absent (ab.
_trapezaria_, Boisduval). The ground colour varies to almost whitish on the
one hand and to reddish buff on the other; the cross lines on the fore
wings are distinct as a rule, but may be faint, and occasionally are
entirely missing; the central space between the lines is most often
brownish, sometimes tawny, but not infrequently this area is but little
darker than the general colour. The blackish discal spot on the hind wings
varies in size and somewhat in shape, but this and also the line beyond,
are sometimes absent. Porritt (_List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera_) mentions
two gynandrous specimens. Eggs, pale grey, with darkish grey marking (Plate
116, Fig. 2b). The caterpillar, of which two figures from coloured drawings
by Mr. A. Sich are given on Plate 116, Figs. 2, 2a, varies from ochreous
grey to dark grey tinged with purple; the front rings are often paler
above, and the back has diamond-shaped marks upon it; the elevation on the
last ring is edged with black. It feeds on the leaves of most trees and
bushes during the spring. The moth is out in July and August, sometimes
earlier. A pretty generally distributed species throughout the British
Isles, but so far it has not been noted from the Hebrides, Orkneys, or
Shetland.
Abroad, the range extends to East Siberia.
ORANGE MOTH (_Angerona prunaria_).
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