The Moths of the British Isles Volume I Part 31

Pl. 121.

1. LIGHT BROCADE.

2. DOG'S TOOTH.

3, 4. DARK BROCADE.

5. BEAUTIFUL ARCHES.

6. BEAUTIFUL BROCADE.

7. PALE SHOULDERED BROCADE.

{243} THE PALE-SHOULDERED BROCADE (_Mamestra thala.s.sina_).

The whitish or creamy-white patch at the base of the reddish-brown fore wings is a noticeable feature of this moth (Plate 121, Fig. 7), and is almost always present, even when the wings are darkened and the other markings more or less obscured. The W-like angles of the white submarginal line run through to the fringes. In some specimens the general colour is purplish brown, and in others greyish brown. The caterpillar is greyish-brown with a slight reddish tinge, and freckled with darker brown; the usual dots are black; central line dusky, a series of darker oblique dashes on each side of it; the line along the spiracles is rather broad and sometimes edged above with blackish. It feeds in August and September on dock, groundsel, honeysuckle, broom, sallow, hawthorn, apple, etc. The moth is out in June, earlier or later according to the season; sometimes it appears again in August or September. It may be found, commonly as a rule, in most woods over the greater part of the British Isles.

THE BEAUTIFUL BROCADE (_Mamestra contigua_).

The moth (Plate 121, Fig. 6) has a pale patch at the base of the fore wing, but this is not so conspicuous as is the pale orbicular stigma, which is often united with a pale mark at its lower edge; another pale patch lies at the inner angle, and the whole area between the second cross line and the clouding on {244} the outer margin may be pale. Sometimes these pale markings are tinged with pink, and more rarely the whole surface is pinkish suffused. The caterpillar is yellowish-green with reddish V-shaped marks on the back; a yellowish line along the black-margined white spiracles.

Buckler figures a reddish-brown form, with a yellowish stripe below the spiracles. It feeds in August and September on birch, oak, golden rod, bog myrtle (_Myrica gale_), dock, brake-fern (_Pteris aquilina_), etc. The moth appears in June, and may sometimes be seen in the daytime on tree trunks or palings. It is a woodland species, but although it occurs in most southern and eastern counties, it is not common in any of them; it becomes commoner in the Midlands, but is scarce in, or absent from, the northern counties of England, and in Wales. In Scotland it is more frequent in some localities from Argyll to Ross. Kane notes it as local, and sometimes abundant, but from the localities given it would seem to be widely distributed in Ireland. The range abroad extends through Northern Asia to j.a.pan.

THE BROOM MOTH (_Mamestra pisi_).

The moth shown on Plate 122, Figs. 1, 2 varies considerably, in the colour of the forewings ranging from purplish red to dingy ochreous brown or greyish brown. The cross lines and occasionally the stigmata and shades may disappear, but the yellow submarginal line always remains, at least in part. The caterpillar (Plate 129, Fig. 3) feeds on the foliage of a variety of plants including brake fern or braken, sweet gale, broom, bramble, wild rose, and sallow, and may be found, often in the daytime, in August and September. It is usually of some shade of green or brown, occasionally blackish, with yellow stripes. The moth is out in June and July and is more or less common almost throughout the British Isles. The range abroad extends to Amurland.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 122.

1, 2. BROOM MOTH.

3, 4. NUTMEG MOTH.

5, 6. GLAUCOUS SHEARS.

7, 8, 9. SHEARS MOTH.

10. THE STRANGER.

11, 12. BRINDLED GREEN.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pl. 123.

1, 4. NORTHERN ARCHES MOTH.

3. NORTHERN ARCHES MOTH, _var. a.s.similis_.

2. BARRETT'S MARBLED CORONET.

5. GREY MOTH.

6. MARBLED CORONET.

7, 8. MARBLED CORONET _vars._

{245}

THE NUTMEG (_Mamestra trifolii_).

The fore wings of this species (Plate 122, Figs. 3, 4) are usually greyish brown variegated with darker; cross lines pale with black edging. Sometimes the general colour is tinged with ochreous. The caterpillar is green with a darker central and two whitish lines on the back, the outer lines with black marks on them; a white edged pinkish stripe along the black-margined white spiracles. It feeds from July to September, sometimes earlier or later, on goose-foot, orach, beet, and other Chenopodiacae, and has also been found on young leaves of onion. The moth is out in May and June, and as a second generation in late July and August. In 1903 a specimen was taken, at Bos...o...b.., on March 21. The species is more especially attached to the coast, but is plentiful in the Breck Sand district of Norfolk and Suffolk, in market gardens and waste places around London, and is found more or less frequently up to Staffords.h.i.+re. In Ches.h.i.+re and Yorks.h.i.+re it is scarce. Barrett states that in Scotland it is found rarely in Roxburghs.h.i.+re and Aberdeens.h.i.+re; and not very uncommonly in the Clyde Valley; it is, however, not mentioned in the list of the lepidoptera of the Clyde area published in 1901. Only two specimens have been recorded from Ireland. The range abroad includes Northern Asia, Canada, and the United States of America.

THE GLAUCOUS SHEARS (_Mamestra glauca_).

Noticeable features of this dark-clouded whitish grey species (Plate 122, Figs. 5[male], 6[female]) are the whitish, or whitish outlined, stigmata; and the conspicuous black wedges on the inner edge of the pale submarginal line. The ground colour is sometimes purplish tinged; the dark clouding may spread over the greater part of the fore wings. The caterpillar is dark red brown with darker freckles, a whitish central line, and two {246} series of dusky dashes; a paler line along the black-edged white spiracles; head pale brown freckled with darker. Feeds in July and August on heather, sallow, bog myrtle, etc., and will thrive on lettuce. The moth is out in May and June, and may be found resting by day on tree trunks, fences, or rocks.

This species in England occurs chiefly in hilly districts of the northern counties from Staffords.h.i.+re to c.u.mberland; recorded from Glamorgan. In Scotland it is widely distributed from Ayr to Ross, and is also found in the Hebrides and the Orkneys; and in Ireland is obtained in several of the northern counties, and on the Hill of Howth. The range abroad extends to Amurland.

THE SHEARS (_Mamestra dentina_).

The ground colour of this species, three specimens of which are shown on Plate 122, Figs. 7, 8[male], 9[female], ranges from the normal pale grey through various shades of brownish grey. The markings, usually well in evidence, are sometimes obscured in the darker specimens. The caterpillar is brownish with three white lines and a series of grey-brown diamond-pattern blotches on the back; the outer lines with blackish spots upon them; the stripe along the black spiracles greyish; head pale brown marked with blackish; plates on first and last rings of the body glossy.

Feeds in July and August on dandelion, knotgra.s.s, chickweed, hawk's-beard (_Crepis_), hawkweed (_Hieracium_), etc. The moth flies in May and June and appears to be found throughout the British Isles. Represented in Siberia by the dark form _latenai_, Pierret.

THE STRANGER (_Mamestra peregrina_).

This species, which is an inhabitant of Asia Minor, Southern Russia, Turkey, Dalmatia and Northern Italy, occurs in Southern, Western, and Northern France; and three specimens {247} have been recorded as taken in England--all at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight--the first in 1858, the second in 1859, and the third about 1876. The specimen depicted on Plate 122, Fig. 10, was received from abroad.

BARRETT'S MARBLED CORONET (_Dianthoecia luteago_, var. _barrettii_).

The type, which is of ochreous coloration, does not occur in the British Isles, although in one example of var. _barrettii_, reared by Mr. Kane, a faint ochreous tinge was apparent, but this faded out in a few weeks. Fig.

2, Plate 123, represents a specimen, kindly lent by Mr. R. Adkin, of var.

_barrettii_, Doubleday, a form discovered in Ireland, at Howth, by the late Mr. C. G. Barrett, in June, 1861. In 1879 a specimen was taken on the coast at Ilfracombe, North Devon; one example was reared from a caterpillar found at Tenby, South Wales, in 1884, and one was captured in Carnarvons.h.i.+re, North Wales, in 1897. In the last mentioned year specimens were taken by the late Major Ficklin on the coast of Cornwall, and as the Cornish form differs from the Irish form in being grey instead of brown, it has been named var. _ficklini_, Tutt. A second specimen was obtained in North Wales in 1899. Since its first detection at Howth the insect has been taken in limited numbers almost every year; and in 1906 Major C. Donovan recorded it as widely distributed along the coast of Co. Cork, the specimens being large, of a dark slate colour with distinct light whitish grey markings.

The caterpillar is pale ochreous with a pinkish tinge; the central line is greyish brown and the spiracles black; head reddish brown marked with darker. It feeds on the roots of seaside campion (_Silene maritima_), July to September. The moth flies from June to August. Like most of the species in this genus, it does not care for the collector's sugar, and except {248} that an occasional specimen may be found resting on the rocks, the moths must be netted as they fly at dusk to the flowers of _Silene_. Staudinger considers that var. _barrettii_ is identical with var. _argillacea_, Hubn.

THE GREY (_Dianthoecia caesia_).

The obscurely marked slate grey insect shown on Plate 124, Fig. 5, was first found at Tramore, Ireland, and in the Isle of Man about the same year (1866 or 1867). Kane mentions that he has found the insect at Tramore, and also in eleven other localities on the rocky coast line of the South of Ireland, from Hook Point to Dingle Bay. Our form of the species, var.

_manani_, Gregson, differs from the greyish blue continental type in its darker coloration, and this is intensified in the south-west corner of Ireland where specimens of a uniform bluish black occur.

The caterpillar is pale ochreous brown minutely freckled with darker; the lines on the back are blackish, but indistinct; usual dots margined with black; head pale brown, marked with darker. It feeds on the buds, flowers, and seeds of campions (_Silene maritima_ and _S. inflata_) from June to August. The moth flies in June, July, and early August, and may be taken, like the last species, at the flowers of the campions growing on the rocks in its seaside haunts.

THE MARBLED CORONET (_Dianthoecia conspersa_).

Three forms of this locally variable species are shown on Plate 123. Fig. 6 represents the typical form occurring generally in England, but in North Devons.h.i.+re, on the coast, specimens are found closely approaching the Isle of Lewis form (Fig. 7), whilst others from that district agree in the blackish ground colour with specimens from Ireland. A still darker {249} race occurs in the Shetland Isles, and chiefly on the east coasts, whence came the specimen depicted (Fig. 8). On the western sides of the Shetlands, Mr. McArthur found the species to be rather more typical as a whole, although some specimens approached the darker eastern form. The dark Shetland race has been named var. _hethlandica_ by Staudinger, and the form with the white markings yellowish tinged is var. _ochrea_, Gregson.

The caterpillar is pale ochreous brown; the back sprinkled with darker, and forming still darker V-shaped marks, central line pale; spiracles ochreous with black outlines, set in the upper edge of a pale stripe; head s.h.i.+ning pale yellowish-brown freckled and lined with darker. It feeds on the seeds of catchfly, campion, and will eat those of sweet-william and garden pinks.

July to September. The moth is out in June and July, and at dusk visits the flowers of its food plants, and occasionally comes to sugar. It is chiefly found in the seaboard counties, but as regards England is commoner in the south than in the north. Although generally rare in the inland counties, it is sometimes not uncommon in some Surrey localities, such as the Croydon district, and Mr. Scollick has reared moths from caterpillars found in seed capsules of white campion at Horsley.

The distribution of this species extends to Amurland.

THE WHITE SPOT (_Dianthoecia albimacula_).

The moth shown on Plate 124, Fig. 1, is "The Beautiful Coronet" of some writers. Although a specimen was taken in Kent in 1816, nothing further was heard of the species in England until 1865, when one example was captured in the Portsmouth district. Then in 1873 caterpillars were found in the Birchwood locality where the first moth was secured. The next year the species was found to occur at Folkestone, and subsequently at other places along the Kentish coast. Since {250} 1889 it has been obtained, not uncommonly, at Seaton on the South Devon coast. The caterpillar, which is somewhat similar to that of the last species, feeds in July and August on the seeds of the Nottingham catchfly (_Silene nutans_), but will thrive on those of other kinds of catchfly, campion, or even sweet-william and garden pinks. The moth flies in May and June.

THE VARIED CORONET (_Dianthoecia compta_).

In Europe this species has a less northerly range than _D. conspersa_, and its eastward range extends to j.a.pan. The caterpillar feeds on the seeds of _Dianthus_.

In his list of the lepidoptera of Ireland (_Ent. Mo. Mag._, 1866), Birchall remarks: "A pair of this well-known species, taken in Ireland by Mr. Tardy, are in the collection of Trinity College, but I am unable to indicate the exact locality of their capture." This is probably all the evidence we have of the occurrence of this species in the British Isles. The specimen represented on Plate 124, Fig. 2, is from the Continent.

THE LYCHNIS (_Dianthoecia capsincola_).

Except that the brown ground colour is sometimes of a reddish shade, or greyish in tone, there is not much to notice in the variation of this species. Occasionally the outlines of the reniform and orbicular marks are usually white and distinct, and now and then the black markings are intensified. Two specimens are shown on Plate 124, Figs. 3 [male], 4 [female]. The caterpillar is brownish ochreous freckled with darker, and with a pale central line and a series of dusky V-shaped marks on the back; a paler stripe along the whitish spiracles; head pale reddish brown, marked with darker brown. It feeds in July, sometimes in September, on campion, ragged robin, catchfly, and sweet-william and pinks. Fig. 3, Plate 130, is from a coloured drawing {251} by Mr. A. Sich, and represents the caterpillar, as seen when making the sketch, holding a seed between its front pair of legs and up to its mouth. The moth is out in May and June, and in some years there is a second flight in the autumn. The species is more or less common over the greater part of the British Isles.