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. 4) is very similar to the last, but it is
larger, and the fore wings are dusted with reddish scales towards the base,
sometimes also along the inner margin. The belt on the body is generally
red, not infrequently with an orange tinge, but it is sometimes yellow or
far more rarely white.
The caterpillar, which is full grown in May, feeds on the inner bark of
birch trees and bushes, apparently preferring the stumps left in the ground
where stems have been cut down. It is not difficult to find, but as it is
about two years in this stage it should not be taken until nearly or quite
full grown, and it is safer to leave it until it has entered the chrysalis
state. The moth is out in June, or sometimes at the end of May; it flies
over birch and rests on leaves, and has been known to visit flowers of the
wood spurge and the rhododendron.
Kent and Sussex appear to be the counties most favoured by this species,
but it occurs in most of the other English counties in which there are
birch woods, certainly up to Yorkshire, and probably further north, as it
is found in Scotland (Clydesdale, Perthshire, and Aberdeen). The Irish
localities are Killarney, Ballinasloe, and Derry.
RED-TIPPED CLEARWING (_Sesia formicaeformis_).
This is another red-belted species, but it differs from either of the two
immediately preceding in having the fore wings tipped with red. (Plate 155,
Fig. 5.)
The caterpillar feeds in the twigs and stumps of osier (_Salix viminalis_),
sometimes called "withe"; it is full grown about June. (Plate 156, Fig. 2;
after Hofmann.) The moth is out in July and August; it is partial to
marshes and other wet spots, {358} and is fond of a leaf as a resting
place. Like the rest of its kind, it is very alert, and skips off quickly
on one's approach. Probably the species is more widely distributed in
England, but from the records, it only appears to have been noted from
Kent, Hampshire, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Derbyshire,
Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Essex.
SIX-BELTED CLEARWING (_Sesia ichneumoniformis_).
The inner and outer margins of the fore wings are tinged with orange, and
there is an orange mark on the outer edge of the cross bar; the body of the
male has seven yellow belts, and that of the female one less. (Plate 155,
Fig. 6.)
The caterpillar feeds in the roots of bird's-foot trefoil (_Lotus
corniculatus_), and kidney vetch (_Anthyllis vulneraria_); it is full grown
about June. July and August are the months for the moth, and its haunts are
on chalk downs, and on banks by the sea; it seems partial to the edges of
chalk pits, sloping banks, and broken ground of undercliffs, etc. In such
places it is to be seen on the wing in the early evening, and, I believe,
in the early morning also. It has frequently been obtained by sweeping the
net over herbage in the vicinity of the food plants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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