Part 5

The very distinct-looking moth shown on Plate 19, Fig. 3, is exceedingly rare in Britain, only about eleven specimens being authenticated. The earliest-known British specimen was captured in a locality near Dalston, in Cumberland, July, 1835. The next record is of three examples near Skinburnness, also in Cumberland. Then, in 1875, one occurred in Norfolk, at the Cromer lighthouse, and this was followed by another in 1876. In 1877 one was captured as it flew over clover at Weston-super-Mare. On September 19, 1878, a specimen was netted at {50} the flowers of ragwort on the shore of Lough Swilly, near Buncrana, Ireland, and one is recorded as taken near Aberdeen, Scotland, in July of that year. The late Dr. Mason had a specimen said to have been taken at Attleborough, in Norfolk, June, 1880. The latest recorded capture is that of a specimen taken by Mr. F. Capel Hanbury in a clover field near Dartmouth, South Devon, September 4, 1900.

The range abroad extends through Central and Southern Europe eastward to North India, North China; and southwards to North-west Africa. It occurs also in the Western United States of America.

THE BORDERED STRAW (_Heliothis peltigera_).

Two examples of this species are shown on Plate 19, Figs. 4, 5. The fore wings are pale ochreous brown, with a more or less reddish tinge; the cross lines are not always distinct, but there is generally a dark dot on the costal end of the first line, and a large olive-brown spot between the second and submarginal lines; following the submarginal line is a pale band of variable width, but always with a black dot (sometimes double) towards its lower end. Very pale specimens are referable to ab. _pallida_, Cockerell.

The caterpillar (Plate 20, Fig. 3, figured from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich) is green, with three darker green or reddish stripes along the back; the stripe along the area of the spiracles is dark green, edged below with white, but when the other stripes are reddish this is also marked with that colour. Several other forms have been described, and the caterpillar seems to be a most variable one. It feeds, from June to August, and again in September and October, on many kinds of low-growing herbage, such as restharrow (_Ononis_), clover (_Trifolium_), _Matricaria inodora_, etc.; also on furze or gorse (_Ulex_), and thorn apple (_Datura_). The blossoms and unripe {51} seeds are preferred in almost all cases, and flowers of the garden marigold will be found useful when these caterpillars are reared in confinement.

From eggs deposited by a female moth taken at Deal in the evening of June 17, 1904, the caterpillars hatched out in due course, fed up on wild convolvulus, pupated at the end of July, and the moths emerged during the last week of August and the first week of September. In another case, moths were developed in about forty-seven days from eggs laid in mid-July. In 1907 six caterpillars were found in South Devon during the second week in August, and one of these attained the moth state on September 3. Previous to 1906, which was a notable one for the species, the moth seems not to have been observed earlier than June, but in the year mentioned several were taken at the flowers of valerian during May, at Torquay. Caterpillars were plentiful on restharrow in the same district during June and July, and an example, presumably, of a second generation was captured at bramble blossom on August 11. In the same year and on the 15th of the month just noted, a specimen was reared from a caterpillar found on _Ononis_, July 18, and another specimen captured, August 24, as it flew in the sunshine on a slope of the South Downs. In Clarendon Wood, near Salisbury, Wilts, one example was taken at sugar, September 2, 1906. The species seems to be of fairly regular occurrence in Devonshire and Cornwall, but it has also been observed, more or less rarely, in many other English counties, chiefly those on the coast; in Pembrokeshire and Glamorganshire, South Wales; a few specimens have occurred in Co. Cork, and one in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. All that appears to be known of this species in Scotland is that one specimen has been recorded from Markton, Ayrshire.

Abroad, its distribution is extensive, ranging from Africa, the Canaries, and Madeira to Central and Southern Europe, and through Asia to India. {52}

THE SCARCE BORDERED STRAW (_Heliothis armigera_).

This species (Plate 19, Figs. 6-8) has an almost universal distribution. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. As regards the British Isles, it was first recorded by Mr. Edleston, who noted a specimen taken at Salford, Lancashire, by Mr. John Thomas, in September, 1840. This specimen, also one captured at Mickleham, Surrey, and others "taken in various localities," are referred to in the _Entomologist's Annual_ for 1855. The following year one was reported from Exeter and one from the Isle of Wight. The summer of 1859 was a hot one (as were the two previous summers), and the species was recorded from the following localities: Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edmonton, Isle of Wight, Ramsgate, Torquay, Weston-super-Mare, Worthing, and other places. Apart from the captures on the Devonshire coast, chiefly at Torquay, where the moth seems to occur pretty nearly every year, the records since 1859 are: 1866 (Scarborough); 1871 (Wakefield); 1876 (Hartlepool, and Kentish Coast); 1877 and 1881 (Gloucester); 1890 (Chatham); 1895 (Tunbridge Wells); 1901 (Isle of Wight); 1902 (Chester and Harwich); 1903 (Lewes). In all cases only single specimens. The species has been noted once in South Wales, and twice in North Wales; several specimens were secured in 1898 near Berwick-on-Tweed, and odd specimens have been recorded from Ireland.

The caterpillar is variable in colour; in one form it is green with a yellowish stripe along the sides, and in another the colour is purplish brown. The form figured (Plate 20, Fig. 2) is pinkish brown with a black-edged whitish line along the back, and a pinkish freckled and brownish edged yellowish stripe along the sides; the raised dots are white as a rule, but sometimes in the darker forms they are blackish. In some examples of the green form the dots and lines are black. {53}

In 1869 two specimens of the moth were reared from caterpillars imported with tomatoes from Spain; twenty-three years later Mr. Arkle referred to the arrival here of _H. armigera_ in the larval state with consignments of tomatoes, from Valencia, landed at Liverpool in the months of June and July. The late Mr. Tugwell reared larvae, from eggs deposited by a captured female moth, on scarlet geranium; and there is a record of the finding of caterpillars on such plants, in the autumn of 1876, in the Isle of Wight. Specimens of the moth found at large in Britain occur in the autumn.

In the United States of America, where it is known as the "Cotton Boll worm," "Corn-ear worm," and "Tomato fruit worm," this caterpillar is chiefly destructive to corn crops, as of the five generations stated to occur during the year in the States three occur in cornfields. It also attacks beans, tobacco, pumpkins, melons, oranges, garden flowering-plants, and many kinds of wild plants. The British nurserymen and farmers are perhaps to be congratulated on the fact that this moth is only an accidental visitor and not a native.

THE PALE SHOULDER (_Acontia_ (_Tarache_) _lucida_, var. _albicollis_).

Only eight specimens of this species seem to have been noted in Britain, and all these are apparently referable to the summer form, var. _albicollis_, Fabricius. (Plate 19, Fig. 9.) Stephens, who figured it as _solaris_, Wien Verz. (Haustellata iii., Plate 29, Fig. 3), states that the specimen was in Marsham's collection, but that nothing farther was known about it. He, however, mentions two other specimens "taken within the Metropolitan area about ten years ago [that would be 1820] and four others near Dover above six years ago." Dale fixes the date of Dover captures as June, 1825. On August 25, 1859, a specimen was taken in a clover field at Brighton. {54}

The species has an extensive range abroad, being found in Southern Europe and North-west Africa to Madeira and the Canaries; also in Central Europe, through Western and Central Asia to North India and East Siberia.

THE FOUR-SPOTTED (_Acontia_ (_Tarache_) _luctuosa_).

The fore wings of this species (Plate 19, Fig. 10) are sometimes finely powdered with white, but more often the outer marginal area is distinctly flecked with white. The conspicuous central spot is usually white, but occasionally it has a pinkish ochreous tinge; very rarely it is reduced to a narrow streak with a short spur from its outer edge. The white band on the hind wings is sometimes narrowed and contracted below the middle.

The eggs are shown on Plate 23, Fig. 2. They were, when laid on June 17, whity brown marked with reddish brown.

The caterpillar is ochreous greyish inclining to reddish or brownish; three dark-edged stripes along the back, a dark-brown line along the black spiracles, with two finer wavy lines above it; lower down there is a broad stripe of reddish brown; head marked with four lines of black dots. It feeds, at night, during June, July, and August (later in some seasons), on the small bindweed (_Convolvulus arvensis_), and although it will eat the leaves when nearly full grown it prefers the flowers and seeds in its infancy.

The moth appears in May and June, and a second generation in August and September. In the sunshine it is active on the wing, but in dull weather it hides under herbage, in clover fields, chalky slopes, and rough places where its food plant occurs.

The female will often lay her eggs in a chip-box when she is thus secured after capture; the caterpillars are not difficult to rear if flower buds of the bindweed can be obtained to start them upon.

2 Pl. 20. 1. BEAUTIFUL YELLOW UNDERWING: _caterpillars_. 2. SCARCE-BORDERED STRAW: _caterpillar_. 3. BORDERED STRAW: _caterpillar_. 4. BORDERED SALLOW: _caterpillar_.

2 Pl. 21. 1, 2. PURPLE MARBLED. 3. SMALL MARBLED. 4. SILVER-BARRED. 5. SILVER HOOK. 6. _THALPOCHARES PAULA_. 7. MARBLED WHITE-SPOT. 8. STRAW DOT. 9. ROSY MARBLED. 10, 11. SMALL PURPLE BARRED. 12. SPOTTED SULPHUR.

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The species is especially common in the south-west of England, chiefly on the coast, but it seems to occur in most suitable localities in nearly all the southern counties, and its range extends to Gloucestershire on the west and to Norfolk on the east. About seventy-five years ago Stephens used to obtain specimens on a chalky ridge near Hertford, and recently the moth has been found at Hitchin in North Hertfordshire.

THE PURPLE MARBLED (_Thalpochares ostrina_).

Two Continental specimens of this little moth are shown on Plate 21, Figs. 1 typical, 2 ab. _carthami_. An example of this species was obtained in June, 1825, in a lane near Bideford, Devonshire, and Stephens refers to this as the only specimen of the species that up to that time (1830) had been noted in England. Nothing more was heard of _T. ostrina_ until 1858, when another Devonshire specimen was taken, this time near Torquay, on June 8, and during the month several others were captured on the coast; two were also secured in the Isle of Wight, and one in Ayrshire, Scotland. In 1865, a specimen was recorded as taken in July a few years previously at Pembrey, South Wales; 1880, one at Dover in September, and one near Swanage; Barrett mentions specimens taken on the Culver Cliffs, Isle of Wight, in 1859.

It seems unquestionable that examples of this species captured in Britain, and also of the other two _Thalpochares_ to be presently referred to, are immigrants, and it is quite conceivable that besides the specimens captured here, others which have escaped detection may also have arrived with them.

The distribution abroad is extensive, embracing South Europe, Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, North-west Africa, Madeira, and the Canary Isles. It has also been found in France and Germany, but its occurrence in the latter country has been even less frequent than in England. {56}

THE SMALL MARBLED (_Thalpochares parva_).

This species, of which a foreign example is represented on Plate 21, Fig. 3, has a similar distribution to that of _T. ostrina_, only it does not seem to occur in Madeira or the Canaries, and its eastward range extends to Central and Southern India.

The fore wings are pale reddish ochreous; first line, oblique, dusky, slightly waved on lower half, bordered inwardly with brownish and outwardly with white; second line, dusky and irregular.

The earliest specimen noted in Britain was captured at Teignmouth, South Devon, in July, 1844; another was said to have been captured at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, but it has been suggested that this specimen might probably be referable to _T. ostrina._ Mr. E. Bankes has a specimen, taken by himself on a salt marsh in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, June 8, 1892. This seems to be all that is definitely known of this species in Britain, but others have been noted from the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man.

_Thalpochares paula._

The fore wings are white, clouded with pale brownish grey beyond the almost straight and rather oblique first line, and also beyond the angulated second line.

Of this species (Plate 21, Fig. 6) a specimen, now in the collection of Mr. E. R. Bankes, was taken at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, in June, 1872. Two other specimens, one of which seems to have been captured by a boy who was collecting on the south coast, were recorded in 1873; these insects were at that time in the collection of the Rev. H. Burney, and had been caught several years earlier.

The range abroad extends through Europe and Asia to South Siberia. The specimen figured is from Dresden. {57}

THE MARBLED WHITE SPOT (_Hapalotis_ (_Erastria_) _fasciana_).

The ground colour of the fore wings of this species (Plate 21, Fig. 7) is brownish grey, more or less clouded and sometimes suffused with blackish; the white patch on the outer marginal area is, in some examples, much obscured by dark-grey markings, and in occasional specimens the only trace of white on this part of the wing is a thin edging to the second line (ab. _albilinea_, Haworth).

The caterpillar is pale yellowish, with a greenish, sometimes red, tinged line along the middle of the back, and a brown one on each side; a reddish line under the black spiracles; head, brownish; the raised dots of the body are dusky edged with reddish. It feeds from July to September. A reddish form of this caterpillar has been noted. Buckler, from whose description the above has been condensed, states that the food-plant is blue moor-grass, or purple melic-grass (_Molinia caerulea_), and this is confirmed by Bignell, who remarks that in Devonshire he easily finds the caterpillars "feeding about half way up the blades" of this grass.

The moth is out in June and July, or in forward seasons in late May. It is partial to pine and larch trunks as a resting place during the day, and is local and more or less frequent in most of the southern counties, from Kent to Cornwall, through Somerset and Gloucester (extending into Oxford), to Hereford and Worcester, on the west, and from Essex to Norfolk on the east. A specimen was taken at light in Chester in June, 1901.

The range abroad extends to Japan.

THE SILVER BARRED (_Bankia_ (_Erastria_) _argentula_).

In its typical form this species (Plate 21, Fig. 4) has the colour of the fore wings olive brown, but occasionally it is {58} tinged with reddish in some English, and more generally in Irish, specimens. The silvery oblique lines, or bands, vary in width, and sometimes there is a distinct spur from the lower outer edge of the first band.

The caterpillar is yellowish green, with a rather darker green line along the middle of the back, and a yellow one on each side of it. It feeds on grasses, such as _Poa aquatica_ and _P. Pratensis_, etc., in July and early August.

The moth is out in June, and may be found during the day sitting about on the herbage in its marshy haunts, or flying over the vegetation towards the evening.

The species is exceedingly local in Britain. In ancient times it occurred in Norfolk, but in the present day it seems to be confined to Cambridgeshire, in which county it was first noted rarely in Wicken fen about thirty years ago, but in 1882 it was found plentifully in Chippenham fen, and in that locality (which is a private one) the species still flourishes. In Ireland it is well distributed over co. Kerry, and is especially abundant on the bogs of Killarney.

The range abroad extends to Amurland, where the brownish form var. _amurula_, Staud., is found.

THE SILVER HOOK (_Hydrelia_ (_Erastria_) _uncula_).

The usually olive brown central area of the fore wings is sometimes reddish tinged, and in fresh specimens the whitish front marginal streak is distinctly rosy; the reniform stigma, which appears to be a spur of the costal streak, is also white or rosy tinged, and sometimes encloses a greyish mark. This stigma is the so-called "hook" to which both the English name and the Latin specific name refer. (Plate 21, Fig. 5.)

The caterpillar feeds in July and early August on sedges (_Carex_) and coarse grasses. It is green, with three lines along the back, the central one rather darker green, and the other two whitish; low down along the sides is a broader yellowish line; the head is green with a yellowish tinge.

2 Pl. 22. 1. THE HERALD. 2. THE DARK SPECTACLE. 3. THE SPECTACLE. 4. GOLDEN PLUSIA. 5, 6. BURNISHED BRASS.

2 Pl. 23. 1. CHAMOMILE SHARK: _caterpillar_. 2. THE FOUR-SPOTTED: _eggs_. 3. STRAW DOT: _caterpillar_.

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The moth is out from late May to early July, sometimes later.

This is also a marsh-loving species, and is generally plentiful in the fens of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire; in the Southern counties it is either very local or, owing to its small size, has escaped detection, but has been noted as occurring in Surrey (Wisley), Kent (Deal), Hants (New Forest), Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and Somersetshire; also in Yorkshire (Askham bog), and in Cumberland. The Welsh counties in which it has been found are Pembroke, Glamorgan and Carnarvon (Abersoch). It is locally common in Clydesdale, and has also been reported from Kirkcudbrightshire, and Perthshire. In Ireland it abounds in the boggy parts of Kerry, and is more or less frequent in several other parts of Ireland. Near Castle Bellingham, co. Louth, where it is common, a second brood was observed on Aug. 1st, 1894.

Its range abroad extends to Amurland and Japan.

THE ROSY MARBLED (_Erastria venustula_).

Another local species, but a frequenter of drier localities than the last two. This delicate rosy-flushed whitish moth first became known as a native of Britain by the capture of a few specimens in Essex. Stephens, writing in 1830, remarks, "I have hitherto seen four examples only--a pair in my own cabinet; one of the latter taken, I believe, in Epping forest by the late Mr. Honey, the other by the late Mr. Bentley." No other British specimens seem to have been recorded until 1845, when the late Mr. H. Doubleday, in July, noted several of the moths disporting themselves over, or settling upon, bracken in Epping Forest. For many years Loughton and some other parts of the forest remained the only known English haunts of the species, but in 1874 it was found commonly in {60} St. Leonard's Forest, Sussex; later still, it was discovered in the Brentwood district, Essex. It still occurs in all these localities, but appears to be now less frequently noticed in the original one than formerly (Plate 21, Fig. 9).

The caterpillar feeds in July and August on the flowers of cinquefoil (_Potentilla_), and is said to eat bramble blossoms also. Hellins describes it as rich brown, with a row of eight dusky-red diamonds down the back, enclosing the dorsal line of brighter red. The moth is out from the end of May and in June; it may be put up from herbage during the day, but its proper time of flight is in the early evening, and then only when the weather is favourable. If cold or damp the insects will not get on the wing. (Plate 25, Fig. 3; after Hofmann.)

The range abroad extends to Amurland.

THE STRAW DOT (_Rivula sericealis_).

This pale ochreous species, an example of which is represented on Plate 21, Fig. 8, varies in the amount of darker shading or suffusion on the outer marginal area of the fore wing; sometimes this is grey-brown or pale reddish brown, but often there is no shading whatever, and in such specimens the ground colour is usually very pale. The dark brown reniform mark is always present, but the cross lines are more often absent than present.

The caterpillar is green, with a darker green line along the middle of the back, and a white stripe on each side of it, the inner edge of each of the latter irregular; head, greenish grey, and the bristle-bearing raised dots are shining green with a dusky cap. It feeds on _Brachypodium sylvaticum_, but seems to accommodate itself to a diet of _Phalaris arundinacea_, and would perhaps eat other grasses: August to May. (Plate 23, Fig. 3; after Hofmann.)

The moth is out all through the summer months, and {61} frequents marshes, damp rides and borders of woods, heaths, and where there is plenty of tall grass.

The species is widely distributed over England and Wales, although it appears to be rather scarce in the midlands and northwards. In Ireland it is generally abundant, but in Scotland it has only been noted from the south, and is there local and rare.

The distribution abroad includes Amurland, Corea, and Japan.

THE SMALL PURPLE BARRED (_Prothymnia viridaria_).

The fore wings of this species (Plate 21, Figs. 10 [male], 11 [female]) range in colour from olive grey to olive brown, and are frequently adorned with two rosy-red (typical) or purplish bands (_aenea_, Haw.). In some specimens the bands are of a dusky hue and not very distinct, whilst in others the wings are of a uniform dingy brown tint (ab. _fusca_, Tutt).

The caterpillar (Plate 25, Fig. 2) is velvety-green above and paler beneath, yellowish between the rings, with a dark green slender line bordered by paler lines along the back, and three pale lines along the sides; below the yellowish spiracles there is a broader pale line becoming whitish on rings 9-12; head, green mottled with brown (adapted from Hellins).

It is to be found in August and September on the common milkwort (_Polygala vulgaris_). On May 31, 1906, I met with the moth in some numbers on a marshy bit of heath in Surrey, where there was a plentiful growth of lousewort (_Pedicularis_), but, so far as I know, no _Polygala_. All the moths were much below the average size, the bands were mainly purple, but in no case rosy. The moth flies in May and June, and specimens have been captured both earlier and later. Except that it does not appear to occur in the extreme north of Scotland, the species seems to be pretty generally distributed over the British Isles, and is often very common in many parts.

The eastern distribution extends to E. Siberia. {62}

THE SPOTTED SULPHUR (_Emmelia trabealis_).