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
Two forms of the male of this species are represented on Plate 141. Fig. 9
shows the yellow English form (ab. _flavescens_, White), and Fig. 10 the
white North English and Scotch forms. In southern localities, however,
specimens occur which are almost as white as the northern or even Scotch
examples; I have two such specimens from Surrey. There is considerable
variation in the size of area occupied by the pale colour, both in white
and yellow forms. In one of the former, from Forres, in Scotland, the white
is represented by a small oval spot and dappled streak on the fore wings;
an entirely black specimen (ab. _nigricarius_, Backhaus) has been noted
from Berkshire. In other specimens there is an unusually large proportion
of pale colour. The females are usually orange, or orange yellow, in the
south (Fig. 8); and yellowish brown, or dingy orange brown, in the north.
The brownish-coloured females occasionally occur in the south, and the
brighter form of this sex is sometimes taken in the Midlands, where the two
forms of the species seem to overlap.
The long, greenish caterpillar is marked with whitish or yellow lines;
those along the back are edged with black, and along the sides with dark
green. It feeds from August to October on the needles of the pine, and also
on other firs. (Plate 140, Fig. 3; Fig. 3a shows a photo of the chrysalis,
twice natural size, by Mr. H. Main.) The moth is out in May and June, later
in the north; it is generally common in pine woods throughout England,
Wales, and Scotland.
BORDERED GREY (_Selidosema ericetaria_).
Portraits of the male and female of this species (known also as _plumaria_)
will be found on Plate 143, Figs. 1 [male], 2 [female]. The cross markings
are more distinct in some specimens than in others, and the central one of
the fore wings varies in width. {326}
The caterpillar (Plate 142, Fig. 3, from a photograph by Mr. H. Main) is
grey, with a dark-brown or blackish irregular double line along the back,
and pale lines along the sides, the lower one edged above with reddish
brown; spiracles, black, as also are the dots on the back; the last ring
ends in a point. (Adapted from Porritt.) It feeds on ling (_Calluna_), from
September well on into the following spring.
The moth occurs on heaths and mosses in July and August, but it is local.
On warm days the males are very active, but about dusk they are not
difficult to capture. In southern England, the New Forest, Hants, appears
to be its special home, but it is also found in other parts of that county,
including the Isle of Wight, in Dorsetshire, and in Surrey; also noted from
Berkshire. It is scarce in Cheshire, fairly common on the Witherslack
mosses in North Lancashire, and at Ullswater in Cumberland. Except that it
has been recorded from the Isle of Arran (1882), it does not seem to have
been noted in Scotland. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and is
abundant at Kinsale, co. Cork.
THE V-MOTH (_Thamnonoma_ (_Itame_) _wauari_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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