The popular name of this species (Plate 143, Fig. 3) refers to the black discal mark on the more or less violet-tinged pale, greyish fore wings; but there is a good deal of variation in this character. Occasionally the wings are suffused with smoky (ab. _vau-nigraria_, Hatchett), or more rarely with blackish brown (ab. _fuscaria_, Thunberg). On Plate 142 is a figure of the caterpillar, from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich. The general colour is greenish, or some shade of brown; the lines on the back are white, and that low down along the sides is broad, and yellow; the raised dots are black with short bristles. It feeds in April, May, and June on the foliage of gooseberry and currant, and is especially fond of the tender shoots. {327} The moth, which is out in July and August, is often common in gardens and orchards where bush fruit is grown, pretty well throughout the United Kingdom. It appears to occur only rarely in Ireland. Abroad, the range extends to Amurland, and a form is found in Labrador. RANNOCH LOOPER (_Thamnonoma brunneata_). All the wings are of a rusty ochreous colour, sometimes, chiefly in the male, inclining to a purplish tint on the fore wings; the brownish cross lines are usually most distinct in the female, which sex Hubner figured as _pinetaria_. (Plate 143, Figs. 4 [male], 5 [female].) The caterpillar is reddish brown, with a black-edged dark-green irregular line along the middle of the back; a white line on each side of the central one, and following this are a dark-brown shade-like stripe and some brownish-green lines; the line along the spiracles is whitish, inclining to yellow. In general appearance it closely resembles a twig of bilberry (_Vaccinium_), upon the foliage of which plant the caterpillar feeds in the spring. The moth is out in June and July, but in the British Isles it is only to be obtained in Perthshire and northwards in Scotland. Black-wood, Loch Rannoch, is the original, and a now well-known, locality for this species, which Curtis in 1828 figured as _Speranza sylvaria_. The range abroad extends to Amurland and Japan, and to North America. BROWN SILVER-LINE (_Lozogramma_ (_Phasiane_) _petraria_). The two cross lines on the pale-brown, sometimes pinkish, fore wings, are edged with whitish, but this is most distinct on {328} the outer one. In some specimens there is a distinct submarginal line, but this character is only faintly in evidence as a rule, and occasionally it is entirely absent. (Plate 143, Fig. 6.) The caterpillar feeds in June, sometimes earlier, on bracken or brake-fern (_Pteris aquilina_). It is olive green marked with reddish brown lines, and there is a whitish line under the black spiracles. In most English and Welsh localities where bracken is plentiful, this moth should be found in May and June; also in the south of Scotland, but its occurrence in that country north of Clydesdale appears to be only casual. It is common in several parts of Ireland.