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 typical form of this species has the fore wings of a pale slaty grey
colour; this, however, does not seem to occur in Britain. Our form, var.
_suffusa_, Tutt (shown on Plate 13, Figs. 1 and 2), is much darker grey
with blackish mottling, a yellowish mark at the base and a reddish cloud in
the reniform stigma; the outer area is more or less tinged with violet, and
this tint sometimes spreads over the whole of the fore wings; {30} the
inner margin is tinged with reddish orange at the base, or along the basal
half, and there are some clouds of the same colour on the black submarginal
line. This is _conformis_ of British authors.
The caterpillar (drawn from a skin, Plate 8, Fig. 1) is olive brown, tinged
with green above, and paler brown, tinged with pink beneath; the dots are
yellowish in black circles, and there is a dark olive-brown mark on ring 1;
there are three yellow lines along the back, the central one interrupted by
darker brown freckles, clustered so as to form a series of diamond-shaped
patches, and the others are edged above with dark olive. It feeds on alder,
from April to June.
The moth is out in September and October, and, after hibernation, in March
and April. Ivy bloom and sugar attract it in the autumn, and it has been
taken at sallow catkins as well as at sugar in the spring.
Since 1861, when its occurrence in Wales was first announced, it has been
found more or less regularly in Glamorganshire, South Wales, or the
adjoining English county of Monmouth. The latest record is that by Mr. P.
J. Barraud, who took a male specimen at sallow bloom in the Wye Valley on
March 31, 1907. The capture of a specimen at sugar, near Brighton,
September 13, 1898, has been reported. One specimen has been recorded from
Yorks., another from Westmoreland; and in 1902, two from near Lancaster.
Wales, however, appears to be the home of this species in the British
Isles.
THE NONCONFORMIST (_Graptolitha_ (_Xylina_) _lamda_).
The example of this species shown on Plate 13, Fig. 3, is of the typical
form, and hails from the Continent. Of the six specimens observed in
England the majority have been recorded as _zinckenii_, Treitschke, a form
having the fore wings more variegated with white. Another form, ab.
_somniculosa_, Hering, {31} has most of the typical markings, especially on
the outer area, absent.
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