(Photo by W. J. Lucas.)]
A male and a female specimen are figured on Plate 130. The males are
usually darker than the females, but they vary in the amount of darker
clouding and suffusion. Three forms of the species have been named as
follows--ab. _brunneata_, Tutt, a modification of the female rather more
strongly coloured than the darkest typical male. Ab. _fuscata_, Tutt, sooty
brown, tending to blackish; both sexes somewhat paler in central area of
fore wings. Ab. _unicolor_, Tutt, similar to ab. _fuscata_, but without
pale marking; the thorax is also darker. (Plate 134, Fig. 7, ab.
_fuscata_.) The eggs, furnished by Mr. Norman Riley, were verdigris green
when laid, but on the third day changed to greyish.
In general colour the caterpillar is greyish brown sometimes tinged with
green; pinkish brown blotches along the back, often united on the front and
hind rings. In some cases the caterpillar is almost black, with a lighter
mark on front of the first ring. It feeds on privet and lilac, and is said
to eat currant, broom, and jasmine: May to August. (Plate 133, Fig. 3.)
The moth is out in April and May, and is fond of resting on palings, trees,
and even walls. It appears to be most plentiful {304} in the London
district, in the north and east of which the dark forms occur; but it is
found more or less frequently over the greater part of England, and in
South Wales; single specimens were taken at Hartlepool, Durham, in 1874 and
1875. One example has been recorded from Kincardineshire, Scotland; and one
from Enniskillen, Ireland.
RINGED CARPET (_Boarmia cinctaria_).
Two specimens are shown on Plate 130. Fig. 3 represents the more or less
typical form, and Fig. 4 depicts an example in which the central area is
almost free of dark speckling, so that the whitish ground colour comes out
distinctly. There is a good range of variation in the direction of both
darker and paler forms than those figured. In some specimens with a clear
white central area, the basal and outer marginal areas of the fore wings,
and the outer area of the hind wings, are black or blackish; similar
aberration is sometimes found in the more speckled specimens also.
Occasionally, there is a projection from below the middle of the second
black line to the basal band.
The caterpillar is green, with darker green and whitish lines along the
back and sides. It feeds on birch, sallow, and heath (_Erica cinerea_), and
may be reared on knot-grass. The moth is out in May, sometimes late April
or early June. The New Forest in Hampshire is the district _par excellence_
for this species, the most favoured locality being the heathy tract near
Lyndhurst, where the moths are very common, in some years, on tree-trunks,
especially birch, and on heather. Other localities in England are Poole
Heath, Parley Heath, and Bloxworth in Dorset; Tilgate Forest, etc., in
Sussex; Reading district in Berks, first noted in 1891. In Ireland, it is
widely distributed, and is abundant at Killarney and some other parts of
Kerry.
The range abroad extends to Amurland and Japan.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 130.
1, 2. WAVED UMBER.
3, 4. RINGED CARPET.
5, 6. WILLOW BEAUTY.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 131.
1. WILLOW BEAUTY: _eggs and caterpillar_.
2. MOTTLED BEAUTY: _caterpillar_.
{305}
WILLOW BEAUTY (_Boarmia gemmaria_).
The two portraits on Plate 130 represent the best known forms of this
species. Stephens in 1831 referred the smoky or dark slaty grey form (Fig.
6), which is the ordinary one in the London district, now as then, to
_rhomboidaria_. Newman subsequently named this form _perfumaria_, and he,
and other entomologists of the time, considered it as a species distinct
from _gemmaria_ = _rhomboidaria_. We now know that the smoky grey specimens
are not peculiar to the metropolitan area, but occur in other parts of
England (Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc.), and are found, with
the type, at Howth and other localities in Ireland. The more general forms
throughout England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland up to Perthshire, are pale
brown, or greyish brown (typical), sometimes ochreous tinged (Fig. 5); the
latter is referable to ab. _consobrinaria_, Haworth. Black forms have been
recorded from Norwich in Norfolk, and blackish specimens have been noted
from Ashdown Forest, Sussex; from Cannock Chase, Staffordshire; and from
the south of Scotland.
The eggs (Plate 131, Fig. 1a) are green at first, changing to pink mottled
with green, and finally to dark grey; the latter change indicates early
hatching of the caterpillar, which usually occurs about a fortnight after
the eggs are deposited.
The caterpillar (Plate 131, Fig. 1, after a coloured drawing by Mr. A.
Sich) is dull reddish brown, mottled more or less with ochreous; traces of
diamond-shaped marks on the back, the latter sometimes well defined. It
feeds on ivy (in London gardens especially), hawthorn, birch, privet,
lilac, rose, clematis, broom, and many other shrubs, and also on yew and
fir, in August, and after hibernation in the spring. The moth is out in
July and August; sometimes a second brood occurs in September. {306}
This species is the _gemmaria_ of Brahm (1791), but _rhomboidaria_,
Schiffermuller (1776), although only a catalogue name until figured by
Hubner, about 1797, is adopted by some authors.
SATIN CARPET (_Boarmia abietaria_).
As an inhabitant of Britain this species was first noted from Hampshire,
and in 1825 was figured and described by Curtis as _Alcis sericearia_. Two
specimens of this form, from the New Forest, are depicted on Plate 132,
Figs. 1, 2; but paler, and also darker, examples are found in this
locality, and, occasionally, melanic specimens occur as well. The latter
form, some examples of which might be described as sooty black with black
veins, is more prevalent among the yews and firs of Surrey.
The caterpillar, for the example of which (and also the egg), figured on
Plate 138, Figs. 1, 1a, I am obliged to Mr. Arthur J. Scollick, is, in one
form, ochreous brown with paler cream-coloured patches on the back; and in
another dark grey-brown with paler patches, sometimes of a light cinnamon
brown; a pale, thin line along the middle of the back runs through a series
of brownish diamonds; there are other pale lines on the back and sides, and
these are edged with brownish, and partly with blackish; spiracles outlined
in black. (Adapted from Buckler.) It feeds on spruce, pine, yew, oak,
birch, sallow, etc., from August to June. A larva has been found on
bilberry in Devon.
The moth is out from late June to early August, but captured specimens are
not often suitable for the cabinet, they are generally more or less frayed
or scarred.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 132.
1, 2. SATIN CARPET.
3-6. MOTTLED BEAUTY.
[Illustration]
2 Pl. 133.
1. DOTTED CARPET: _caterpillars_.
2. BRUSSELS LACE: _caterpillars_.
3. WAVED UMBER: _caterpillar_.
4. BELTED BEAUTY: _eggs_.
{307} Beside Surrey and Hants, previously mentioned, the species occurs in
Sussex (Tilgate Forest), Buckinghamshire (Halton), and has been recorded
from Berkshire; Egg Buckland, Oxton, Bickleigh Vale, and other Devonshire
localities; also from Cornwall, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire (the
Cotswolds), and Monmouthshire.
Staudinger and other recent authors have adopted _ribeata_, Clerck, for
this species.
MOTTLED BEAUTY (_Boarmia repandata_).
Two examples of the more ordinary mottled form of this species are shown on
Plate 132, Figs. 3 [male], and 4 [female]. Fig. 6 represents ab.
_destrigaria_, Haworth (_muraria_, Curtis); and Fig. 5 depicts a specimen
near var. _sodorensium_, Weir, from the Isle of Lewis. Dark-brown forms,
inclining to blackish, are not uncommon in the London district, but in
South Yorkshire coal-black specimens with whitish submarginal lines occur;
a sooty black example from the Sheffield district is figured on Plate 134,
Fig. 4, and, it may be added, these melanic forms are referable to ab.
_nigricata_, Fuchs.
Two forms of ab. _conversaria_, Hubner, will be found on Plate 134, where
Fig. 1 depicts a specimen from the New Forest, and Fig. 8 represents an
extreme example from North Devon. The _conversaria_ form occurs chiefly in
the south and west of England, and is perhaps most plentiful along the
North Devon coast; also in South Wales; Durham (rarely, on the coast).
Broad dark banded specimens are recorded from Arran and Argyll.
The caterpillar (figured on Plate 131, Fig. 2, after Sich) is brownish
inclining to ochreous; a dark brownish line along the middle of the back,
and a series of brownish diamond-shaped marks most distinct on the back of
the middle rings; a line of blackish marks along the sides shows up in the
paler examples. Sometimes the general colour is dark reddish brown,
freckled with dark brown; but in all cases the underside is paler than the
upper, and is striped and lined with dark and pale brown. {308} It feeds on
hawthorn, birch, elm, hazel, bilberry, heather, etc., from July to May.
The moth is out in June and July, and specimens of a second generation have
been reared in September. Generally common throughout the British Isles.
GREAT OAK BEAUTY (_Boarmia roboraria_).
[Illustration: FIG. 18.