The typical greyish form, with blackish wavy cross lines and dark central
band, is shown on Plate 80, Fig. 1 [male] and 2 [female]. Figure 3
represents a specimen from Shetland in which the band is sooty black (ab.
_annosata_, Zetterstedt = _nigristriaria_, Gregson). The interesting
blackish suffused form from the Isle of Arran (Fig. 4) leads up to a still
blacker variety, occurring in the same isle, and also in the Shetlands, in
which the whole of the fore wings is nearly as dark as the central band of
Fig. 3, and the hind wings are also much darkened; such specimens are
referable to ab. _glaciata_, Germar. Ab. _prospicuata_, Prout = _gelata_,
Staud., is a form with the fore wings whitish, and the {192} base and the
central band thereof blackish; some Shetland specimens closely approach
this pretty variety.
The caterpillar is green, with a brownish line along the middle of the
back, and a series of pinkish or purplish-red oblique streaks which nearly
meet at the central line and so form V-shaped marks; a whitish or yellowish
stripe low down along the sides, sometimes edged above with reddish. In
some examples the general colour is reddish brown. It feeds in April and
May, after hibernation, on bilberry, ling, and heath in a wild state, but
may be reared on knot-grass or sallow.
The moth is out from June until early August, and may be found resting,
often in numbers, on rocks and stone walls in mountain and moorland
districts, from Herefordshire, northwards through England, North Wales, and
over the whole of Scotland, including the isles, and Ireland. Kane states
that in the latter country melanic forms, such as those from Yorks, etc.,
are nowhere met with.
YELLOW-RINGED CARPET (_Entephria flavicinctata_).
The general colour of the fore wings of British specimens of this species
(var. _obscurata_, Staud.) is slaty grey; the basal, central, and outer
marginal cross bands are thickly sprinkled with yellowish-brown, and it is
this feature that at once separates this species (Plate 80, Figs. 5, 6)
from that last referred to.
The bristly caterpillar is green, chocolate, or red brown, but always of a
dull shade; on the back is a series of black V-shaped marks, and a central
dark, slender line; the front part of each V-mark filled up with pink or
lilac, forming a triangle, the apex of which is yellow; a yellowish stripe
low down along the side (adapted from Fenn). It feeds in the spring till
April, after hibernation, on saxifrage (_Saxifraga aizoides_, _S.
hypnoides_, etc), and also on stonecrop (_Sedum_), and is most partial to
the flowers of these plants.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 76.
1, 1a. NOVEMBER MOTH: _eggs and caterpillar_.
2, 2a. BEAUTIFUL CARPET: _caterpillars and chrysalis_.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 77.
1-4. MOTTLED GREY.
5-8. TWIN-SPOT CARPET.
9-12. SMALL AUTUMNAL CARPET.
{193}
The moth flies throughout the summer, possibly in two generations, as, when
reared in confinement, moths appear in May, and from eggs obtained from
these, caterpillars feed in June and July, and attain the perfect state in
August. Like the last species, its chief resting-places are the rocks, in
its favourite haunts, in gorges among the hills and moorlands. It has been
recorded from few parts of northern England, but one specimen is said to
have been taken in Dovedale, Derbyshire. In Lancashire it has been noted as
scarce about Clougha; and in Yorkshire one example was taken on Malham Moor
in August, 1876, and one at Hutton Buscel Moor, near Scarborough, July 16,
1891. It is more plentiful in Scotland; in Clydesdale it is local, but not
uncommon, the localities mentioned being Lochgoilhead, and watercourses
above Ardentinny; more frequent in Perthshire, thence to Sutherland, and it
occurs also in the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Ireland, it is found in Co.
Antrim; and Mr. Thomas Greer informs me that it is common at Murlough Bay,
Fair Head.
SILVER-GROUND CARPET (_Xanthorhoe montanata_).
Figs. 7 and 8 on Plate 80 represent the most usual form of this species,
which is variable in the amount of clouding on the fore wings and in the
intensity of the cross marking. In some specimens, chiefly from southern
localities, the fore wings are almost clear white, and the central band is
broadly blackish (Fig. 9). Shetland specimens, on the other hand, are much
clouded or suffused with ochreous brown, and the central band is greyish
brown (ab. _shetlandica_, Weir (Fig. 10)). Then there is variation in the
central band, which is often entire, but more frequently broken up by
bandlets; or it may be considerably narrowed, especially from the middle to
the inner margin, and not altogether rarely it is completely severed below
the middle, and the lower part almost or quite absent. A specimen with all
{194} the wings smoky leaden-grey, and the central bar of the fore wings
pale grey-brown, was taken near Longfleet in Wiltshire, in the summer of
1881.
The caterpillar is wrinkled, with a ridge along the sides; in colour it is
pale brown, inclining to purplish with blackish dots; three lines along the
back, the central one dark greyish, the others paler and broader; below the
latter the sides are greyish tinted with a lower edging of pale yellowish
brown. It feeds at night on bedstraw, and various low-growing herbage,
including grass. August to April.
The moth is out in June and July, sometimes earlier in the south. It is
generally distributed, and, as a rule, common, in woodlands, lanes, etc.,
throughout the British Isles.
GARDEN CARPET (_Xanthorhoe fluctuata_).
Of this common frequenter of our gardens four examples are depicted on
Plate 80. Figs. 11 and 13 are the more frequent forms, but specimens with
the central band complete, as in Fig. 12, are not uncommon. Chiefly, but by
no means exclusively, in Southern localities, some examples have the ground
colour almost pure white; often the wings are more or less suffused with
dark grey (ab. _neapolisata_, Milliere), and this is especially the case in
Scotland, where, in Aberdeenshire and in Shetland, a blackish form, ab.
_thules_, Prout, occurs. Fig. 14 represents a specimen of this form from
Aberdeen. Somewhat rarely, the central band is only indicated by a small
spot on the front area of the wing (ab. _costovata_, Haworth), and more
often the band is much narrowed or otherwise modified in the direction of
that aberration. Fig. 4, Plate 61, shows an extreme example of this form.
Specimens vary in size from rather under one inch to one inch and a half in
expanse.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 78.
1-5. NOVEMBER MOTH.
6-8. AUTUMNAL MOTH.
9, 10. WELSH WAVE.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 79.
1, 1a. ARGENT AND SABLE: _eggs, natural size and enlarged, and
caterpillar_.
2, 2a, 2b. WOOD CARPET: _caterpillar and chrysalis_.
3. GALIUM CARPET: _caterpillar_.
4. COMMON CARPET: _chrysalis_.
{195}
[Illustration: FIG. 4.