THE WAVED BLACK (_Parascotia fuliginaria_).
In the shape of its wings and general appearance the dingy insect
represented on Plate 36, Fig. 2, would seem to belong to the Geometridae
rather than to the present group, and, indeed, has been mistaken for a dark
form of _Ematurga atomaria_. However, the long, projecting palpi are
evidence of its being a member of this sub-family.
The caterpillar, which is moderately stout, and tapers slightly towards
each end, has only twelve feet. Ground colour, sooty black, with
orange-coloured raised dots, from which arise long recurved hairs. The late
Mr. W. H. Tugwell (from whose description of the larva that given above has
been adapted), in 1884, was shown caterpillars upon a black sooty-looking
fungus (determined by Dr. M. C. Cooke as an effused _Muscedine_), growing
in masses on rotten wood in an old wooden building in Bermondsey, near the
river. He afterwards reared the moths.
The caterpillar hatches from the egg in August, but it is not full grown
until May or June, when it spins a fairly compact cocoon of greyish silk,
which is coated with particles of decayed wood and dried fungus.
The moth is out in June and July, and most of the known British specimens
have been captured in London, or reared from caterpillars found therein.
Stephens (1831) mentions three or four examples taken during the previous
thirty years, and gives as localities--Blackfriars bridge, and Little
Chelsea; Stainton (1859) adds, Fleet Street. Other specimens have been
taken in the City in 1855, 1859, 1862, 1870, 1879, and 1881. One occurred
at Clapham in 1864, and one has been reported from Crome in Worcestershire.
More recent records are--one specimen flying around a sugared post at
Walthamstow, July 29, 1901; eight, chiefly at light, at Camberley, 1904-5;
and lastly, a specimen at St. Katharine's Docks, July, 1906. {87}
THE FAN-FOOT (_Zanclognatha tarsipennalis_).
This species is shown in both sexes on Plate 35, Figs. 1 [male], 2
[female]; it is the _Pyralis tentaculalis_ of Haworth, and also that
author's _tarsicrinatus_, and the _tarsicrinalis_ of Stephens. The general
colour is brownish, sometimes inclining to ochreous, and occasionally with
a greyish cast. The submarginal line starts from the front edge, before the
tip, of the fore wing.
The caterpillar is greyish brown, darker freckled, and dotted with black,
downy; three broken darker lines along the back, the central one broad and
inclining to black, and lower down along the sides is a series of blackish
streaks; head, darker. It feeds in July and August, and hibernates when
nearly or quite full grown. Among various foods that have been mentioned
for it are raspberry, ivy, and knotgrass. Some years ago I had some moths
emerge in the autumn; these resulted from caterpillars that I had reared
from the egg on blackberry, and I remember that they showed a decided
preference for the withered leaves left in the cage for them to pupate
among. (Plate 34, Fig. 2.)
The moth is out in June and July, but individuals of a second generation
seldom occur in the open. Although it occurs in woods, it is far more
frequent in lanes and hedgerows. Common and generally distributed, from
Worcester southwards, and to the east and west; northwards its range
extends to Yorkshire, but it is local and uncommon.
In Scotland it is not scarce in some parts of Ayrshire, and has been
recorded from Kircudbrightshire. Kane mentions it as fairly common in
Ireland.