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
This species (Plate 155, Fig. 1), known also as _asiliformis_, Rottemburg
(1775), and _cynipiformis_, Esper (1782), is now held to be correctly
referred to _vespiformis_, Linnaeus (1761). The crossbar of the fore wings
is orange red in both sexes; the body of the male has two more or less
united yellow spots at the junction with the thorax, four yellow belts, and
the tail tuft is black above, mixed with yellow below; in the female the
body belts are usually one less than in the male, the yellow spots at the
junction are generally run together, and the tail tuft is almost wholly
yellow. As indicated by the English name, the legs are largely yellow in
both sexes.
The caterpillar feeds on the inner bark of oak trees, is full {356} grown
in May or June, and turns to a brownish chrysalis in a cell formed in the
bark. A well-known locality for this moth, which is out in July and early
August, is Hyde Park, London. It is also found in woods or oak-timbered
parks in Kent (Tunbridge Wells), Surrey, Sussex (Abbot's Wood, Tilgate,
etc.), Dorset (Glanvilles Wootton, etc.), Devon (Devonport, Plymouth,
Topsham, etc.), Essex (Epping), Suffolk, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire,
Leicestershire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire (Doncaster).
RED-BELTED CLEARWING (_Sesia myopaeformis_).
One example of each sex is shown on Plate 155, where Fig. 2 represents the
male and Fig. 3 the female; both have a single belt on the body; as a rule,
the belt is red, but occasionally it inclines to orange or yellow.
The caterpillar feeds on the inner bark of the trunks or boughs of apple,
and sometimes pear, trees. It is nearly two years in maturing, but is full
grown about June. The moth is out during the summer months, and is to be
seen early on sunny mornings, newly emerged from the chrysalis on the
trunks of the trees in which the caterpillar lives; the chrysalis skins
will also be noted at the same time, sticking out from holes in the bark.
Later in the day it sits on leaves, etc., after its flights, and I have
even found it occasionally on a gravel path, and once on the pavement of a
road in North-west London.
The species seems to be most frequent in gardens and orchards around
London, but it has been recorded from as far north as Lancashire and
Yorkshire; it is probably widely distributed over England. The Irish
localities, mentioned by Kane, are Dublin, Cork, Killarney, and Clonbrock.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 156.
1. CURRANT CLEARWING: _caterpillar and chrysalis skin_.
2. RED-TIPPED CLEARWING: _caterpillar_.
3. WELSH CLEARWING: _caterpillar_.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 157.
1, 3. GHOST MOTH.
2, 4. DO., VAR. _THULENSIS_.
5, 6. ORANGE SWIFT.
{357}
LARGE RED-BELTED CLEARWING (_Sesia culiciformis_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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