(Photos by H. Main.)
The caterpillar is figured on Plate 125, from a coloured drawing by Mr. A.
Sich. It is described by Fenn as dull yellow, olive green, or greenish
brown; a series of dark grey X-like marks on the back, most distinct on
rings 5-11; the spiracles are white, each placed in a black cloud, and the
spaces between them paler, sometimes yellowish; the last ring is often
brown without marking, and the front rings have a purplish stripe above;
under surface, paler throughout. It feeds, in April and May, as a rule, but
has been found later, on hawthorn, sloe, oak, birch, alder, sallow, etc.,
and may be obtained in the daytime.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 122.
1-5. MOTTLED UMBER.
6-8. MARCH MOTH.
9-11. PALE BRINDLED BEAUTY.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 123.
1. SHARP-ANGLED PEACOCK: _eggs and caterpillar_.
2. TAWNY-BARRED ANGLE: _caterpillar and chrysalids_.
{293} The moth is out in March and April; and after their short evening
flight the males may be seen in numbers on hedgerows and the twigs of
trees. It is not infrequent at sallow catkins, and sometimes is not scarce
on palings and tree-trunks. The female may occasionally be detected in the
crevices of bark on tree-trunks, but is more easily obtained on the twigs
at night.
The species is common over the whole of England and Wales, also in Ireland.
As regards Scotland, it is abundant in the south, but its range does not
seem to extend beyond Aberdeen; the var. _fuscata_ occurs in Renfrewshire.
MOTTLED UMBER (_Hybernia defoliaria_).
A female (Fig. 3) and four examples of the male of this variable species
are shown on Plate 122. The ground colour of the fore wings in the male
varies from whitish, through ochreous brown to dull russet brown; the cross
bands (when present) range in colour from reddish brown to dark purplish,
almost blackish, brown; in all the paler specimens the ground colour is
more or less sprinkled or suffused with brownish; the darker specimens are
sprinkled with dark purplish or blackish. Ab. _obscurata_, Staud., is
almost uniformly dull brownish, and an example approaching this form is
represented by Fig. 4.