The Moths of the British Isles Volume I Part 15

Pl. 61.

DRINKER MOTH.

{125} The moth emerges in July. It seems most addicted to damp gra.s.sy lanes, ditch-sides, fens, marshes, moorlands, and sandhills; and is not really uncommon in very many suitable districts throughout the United Kingdom. Abroad, it is common over the greater part of Europe and its range extends to Amurland and j.a.pan.

THE SMALL LAPPET (_Epicnaptera ilicifolia_).

This exceedingly local and rare British moth has the fore wings pale reddish-brown, suffused on the outer marginal area with grey; about the centre of the wings there is a short black line preceded by a whitish mark; beyond is a blackish, indistinct, wavy line; the greyish outer area is limited by a brown line, and this is inwardly edged with whitish: hind wings purplish brown with the central area whitish and crossed by a blackish line. Fringes whitish, marked with brown at the ends of the veins (Plate 63).

Kirby states that the caterpillar is rust coloured, with a black stripe on the back, on which stand white dots; and with reddish-yellow transverse spots on the second and third rings. Another form is grey, and the back white, with a broad black central stripe interrupted by rust-coloured spots dotted with black.

The following brief description is taken from an inflated skin of an immature caterpillar received from Dresden: brownish inclining to reddish, paler between the rings; clothed with short greyish hair, and longer hairs from and above the fleshy tubercles low down along the sides; there is a hair-clothed eminence on ring eleven. The only conspicuous markings are on rings two and three; each of these has two orange spots separated and narrowly edged externally with velvety black; there are two small black spots on the back of each of the other rings, and indications of reddish circles around some of these. Head blackish, covered with greyish hairs (Plate 62). {126}

In this country the caterpillar feeds on bilberry (_Vaccinium myrtillus_), but on the Continent it is said to eat the foliage of sallows and willows, also of birch.

The coc.o.o.n is spun up among the leaves of the food plant. That figured on Plate 62, of foreign origin, was on a shoot of bilberry; a moth emerged from it on April 5, 1907. The first detailed account of this species in Britain is that in the _Zoologist_ for 1852, in which Mr. Atkinson records that he took a specimen in May, 1851, at Cannock Chase in Staffords.h.i.+re. A year earlier two larvae were found by Mr. Green on a moor near Sheffield, and one of these attained the moth state in April, 1851. After this moths and caterpillars seem to have been taken in varying numbers down to 1896, when a specimen was captured by Dr. R. Freer of Rugby. Tutt, quoting from a letter received from Dr. Freer, states that two moths were reared from three caterpillars found at Cannock in 1898. The only other known British locality is in the neighbourhood of Lynton, North Devon, where a caterpillar, which, from the description, must have been this species, was found in 1864. It was taken on August 3 in a wood abounding with bilberry.

The species ranges over Central Europe, but seems to be generally rare; it also occurs in Amurland and j.a.pan.

THE LAPPET (_Gastropacha quercifolia_).

Warm reddish brown is the prevailing colour of this fine moth. The wings are more or less suffused with purplish grey, and crossed by blackish lines--three on the fore wings and two on the hind wings. Except in the reddish tinge, which may be bright or dull approaching chocolate, this species is pretty constant in its coloration. Barrett mentions a specimen of a light brown colour, and another of a pale buff. The first of these forms seems to approach the var. _meridionalis_, Staudinger (Tutt), and the other to var. _ulmifolia_, Heuacker, which are well known on the Continent.

In certain favourable seasons a second generation of the moth has been obtained, chiefly perhaps, in confinement, and on the Continent; although in Britain a caterpillar or two will sometimes feed up and attain the perfect state the same year they hatch from the egg. These examples, which are much smaller, but do not otherwise differ from normal specimens, are referable to var. _hoegei_, Heuacker.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 62.

1, 1a. LAPPET MOTH: _eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar_.

2, 2a. SMALL LAPPET: _caterpillar and coc.o.o.n_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 63.

1. SMALL LAPPET MOTH, _male_; 2 _female_.

3. LAPPET MOTH, _male_; 4 _female_.

{127} The moth is figured on Plate 63, and the eggs and caterpillar on Plate 62.

The eggs, which are whitish in colour with greyish markings, are laid, in July or early August, in twos, threes, or more, on twigs or the undersides of leaves of sloe, apple, sallow, hawthorn, etc. A single female moth has been known to lay over a thousand eggs, but this is perhaps exceptional, and somewhere about half that number is possibly near the average. Even the latter would take the moth some time to distribute here and there in small batches.

The caterpillars hatch out in about a fortnight, feed for a few weeks, and in the autumn, when about three-quarters to one inch in length, take up their winter quarters low down on the stems of the food plant, but, in confinement, often on a withered leaf.

Caterpillar dark grey, so thickly sprinkled with minute black dots as to appear almost black; the whole body is clothed with fine and rather short blackish hair; low down on the side there is a fringe of brownish hair, and this covers the fleshy lappets (the older writers named this larva the "Caterpillar with the Lappets"); two white marks edged in front with black on the third ring, and a hairy prominence on the eleventh, are the most conspicuous features of this caterpillar. When the front rings are extended, the divisions between them are seen to be deep blue. Head grey, with darker stripe and paler lines. Occasionally several white marks appear on the back, and this is stated by Professor Poulton to occur more especially in the caterpillars when the twigs and stems of the food plant upon {128} which they have grown up are covered with grey lichen. Sometimes the caterpillar has been reported as destructive in orchards; two or three large ones feeding on a small apple tree would certainly afford evidence of their presence in the shape of denuded twigs, but it is doubtful if they ever occur in sufficient numbers to cause any very serious damage to fruit trees.

The chrysalis is dark brown, inclining to blackish, and covered with a whitish powder, which does not shake off. It is enclosed in a long, grey-brown, tight-fitting coc.o.o.n of silk and hairs of the caterpillar, which is generally spun up among the lower twigs, or to the stem of the food plant.

The moth emerges in June or July, and is on the wing at night, when it may be sometimes netted as it flies along or over hedgerows. When caught in this way it dashes about so wildly in the net that it is rarely of much value for the collection. The same may be said of examples taken by light, which at times attracts the moths freely. When resting in the daytime, it very closely resembles a withered bramble-leaf or bunch of leaves. The fore wings are folded down, roof-like, over the hind wings, which are flattened out and their edges project beyond the margins of the fore wings. It is, however, very rarely seen in the open at such times.

The species does not seem to have been recorded from Ireland or from Scotland, but it has a wide distribution in England, although much less frequently met with in the north than in the south. In the Cambridge fens it is perhaps more plentiful than elsewhere, but it is not uncommon in some parts of Berks.h.i.+re, Huntingdons.h.i.+re, and Kent. The range abroad extends through Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, to Armenia, Tartary, Siberia, and Amurland; it is also represented in China, Corea, and j.a.pan.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 64.

KENTISH GLORY MOTH.

_Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars, chrysalis and coc.o.o.n._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 65.

KENTISH GLORY.

1 _male_; 2 _female_.

{129}

ENDROMIDIDae.

THE KENTISH GLORY (_Endromis versicolor_).

This species has the fore wings of the male brownish clouded and suffused with ochreous; there is a white patch at the base, and some white marks including three spots towards the apex, on the outer marginal area; two black cross lines, the first inwardly and the second outwardly, edged with white; the s.p.a.ce between the lines is sometimes clouded with whitish, and there is an almost central black [sideways vee]-shaped mark. Hind wings tawny with a black central line, some brownish marks beyond, and sometimes two white spots at the upper angle. The female is much larger in size, without ochreous suffusion on the fore wings, and the hind wings have the ground colour whitish. It varies in the tone of the brown colour, and, in the male, in the amount of ochreous suffusion (Plate 65).

The eggs are laid in rows, generally two deep, on a birch twig. At first they are greenish, but soon change to brownish olive or s.h.i.+ning purplish brown.

When young the caterpillars cl.u.s.ter together on the twigs, as shown on Plate 64. They are at first black with glossy dots, and later, greenish, but still dotted with black. After the third skin change, they are without the black dots, and the colour is then pretty much that of the mature caterpillar, which is green, rather whitish on the back, and with a dark green central line; a series of seven creamy oblique stripes along the sides, and on the sides of the first three rings there is a whitish stripe broken at the divisions; these markings are often edged with dark green; on the eleventh ring there is a somewhat horn-like prominence, striped with creamy white, and below it a yellow stripe; the spiracles are white, ringed with black. Head small, paler green, with whitish marks. Feeds on birch, from late May to {130} July. Alder, sallow, and lime have also been mentioned as food plants.

The rough, blackish, or sooty-brown chrysalis is enclosed in a coa.r.s.e netted coc.o.o.n, dark brown in colour, and more or less covered with moss, leaves, or other material, among which it is spun up, generally on the ground, but sometimes just under the surface. a.s.sisted by the points on the rings of the body, the chrysalis is able to work itself partly out of the coc.o.o.n, and this it does some days before the moth emerges.

The moths usually emerge in late March and in April, earlier or later in some seasons. They do not always come up the year after pupation, but often remain two or more winters in the chrysalis.

The males fly in the suns.h.i.+ne, and are very strong on the wing; the females are not active until dark. This s.e.x has been found resting on the twigs of birch, also on heather, and occasionally on a tree trunk. The males "a.s.semble" freely to a freshly emerged female. The species inhabits the more open parts of woods and forests, moors and hillsides where birches flourish. It is probably more plentiful in its Scottish localities, such as Rannoch and Forres, than elsewhere, but it occurs also in Aberdeens.h.i.+re, Kincardines.h.i.+re, and Argylls.h.i.+re. In England it seems to be not uncommon in Wyre Forest, Worcesters.h.i.+re, and the Reading district in Berks.h.i.+re. It used to be so plentiful in Tilgate Forest, Suss.e.x, that over a hundred males were brought to the net in one day by a bred female put down to allure them. This happened some fifty years ago, and compares curiously with a record of one male attracted by a female in Tilgate Forest, April 13, 1869.

Other localities in Suss.e.x that have been mentioned are St. Leonard's Forest and near Petersfield; it has also been found in Herefords.h.i.+re and in some parts of Suffolk. Distributed over Central and Northern Europe, the range extending to North Italy.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 66.

1, 2. EMPEROR MOTH, _males_; 3 _female_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 67.

EMPEROR MOTH.

_Eggs, natural size and enlarged._ _Caterpillars and coc.o.o.n._ (_Photos. by W. J. Lucas._)

{131}

SATURNIIDae.

THE EMPEROR MOTH (_Saturnia pavonia_).

In a general way the fore wings of the male may be described as purplish grey, suffused with rosy or with tawny shades; a reddish cloud, black marked above, at the tips of the wings; the outer margins are more or less whitish, and there is a whitish patch about the middle of each wing, in which is an eyed spot; the hind wings are tawny, with a central eye spot and a blackish band towards the outer margin. The female has all the wings pale purplish grey, with whitish bordered outer margins; markings much as in the male, but the central area of the hindwings is more or less whitish.