ARCTIIDÆ.
In this family Staudinger includes 161 species known to occur in the Palæarctic Region. About forty of these are found in Europe, and thirty-one of the latter rank as British species.
The family is usually divided into two sub-families—Arctiinæ and Lithosiinæ, fifteen of our species being referred to the former and sixteen to the latter. In both groups the caterpillars are hairy, but the hairs are usually longer in those of the "Tigers" than in those of the "Footmen"; the latter, too, are lichen feeders, whilst the others prefer the foliage of plants.
Tiger Moths (Arctiinæ).
The moths in this sub-family have short, or, rather, stout bodies, and ample wings; and as the tongue is imperfectly developed in most of the species, flowers have not the same attraction for them as for the long-winged and slender-bodied Lithosiinæ, most members of which have this organ well developed.
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| Pl. 74. |
| White Ermine Moth. |
| Caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon. |
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| Pl. 75. | ||
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The White Ermine (Spilosoma menthastri).
Older English names for this generally distributed and often common species are The Great Ermine Moth of Wilkes (1773), Harris (1778), and The Large Ermine of Haworth.
On Plate 75 will be found three colour-forms of the moth. Fig. 1 has the typical whitish colour, Fig. 2 is creamy on the fore wings, and Fig. 3 has the fore wings buff. The last represents a specimen from Scotland, where, especially in the western parts of the country, and also in the north of Ireland, and the north-west of England, buff forms, both paler and much darker than the one figured, are not uncommon. Sometimes the Scottish specimens have smoky hind wings. As regards the black spots on the wings, the species is subject to considerable variation. In some examples almost all the markings are entirely absent; in others they are very small and numerous, or large in size and number; the central spots on the fore wings are often united, forming irregular designs. Again, there may be an unusual amount of black spotting on the outer margins, and all other parts of the wings free of spots. All these aberrations in marking, except, perhaps, the central cluster, seem to occur in the various colour forms. An uncommon form, known as var. walkeri, Curtis (Plate 78, Fig. 5), has the black scales gathered together into streaks along the nervures of the fore wings; modifications of this variety have also been found, or reared. Possibly by the careful selection of parent moths showing tendency to the streaked aberration it might happen in a generation or two that var. walkeri would turn up in the breeding cage to reward the rearer for trouble taken in the experiment.
The caterpillar, which is often not uncommon in gardens in August and September, or even later, is brown, with long hairs, and a reddish stripe along the middle of the back. It feeds on the foliage of low-growing plants, and does not appear to be specially attached to any particular kind. The chrysalis is dark brown, in a close-fitting cocoon of silk and hair from the caterpillar, spun up in odd corners on the ground or at the base of a wall or fence, sometimes between the pales (Plate 74).
The moth emerges in June, and may be seen sitting on walls, fences, trees, or on the herbage growing on hedge banks; or even on the bare ground. It often flies into houses when lighted up, and is a frequent attendant at the public gas lamps and electric lights. The geographical range of this species extends through Northern and Central Europe southward to North-West Africa, and eastward to Amurland.
The Water Ermine (Spilosoma urticæ).
The specimens of this white moth, depicted on Plate 75, are of the form usually met with in Britain. To Haworth, Stephens, and other early entomologists this was known by the English name of the "Water Ermine" (S. papyrata, Marsham), whilst a rarer form—with a minute dot on the disc of the fore wings, and three dusky spots on the hind wings, as in the White Ermine—was the "Dingy White" of Haworth. Occasionally specimens are obtained with extra black spots on the basal and front areas of the fore wings.
Caterpillar, dark brown with a purplish tinge, the hairs, arising in spreading tufts from black warts, are dark brownish; spiracles white; head black and glossy. Feeds in July and August on a variety of marsh plants, among which are yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), mint (Mentha aquatica), lousewort (Pedicularis), water dock (Rumex hydrolapathum), and iris. It seems to affect plants growing under bushes, rather than those more exposed. It is, presumably, not difficult to rear in confinement, as there is a record of eight broods belonging to three generations, and all descendants of a captured female, having been reared by Mr. Bacot. Chrysalis dark reddish brown, in a cocoon similar to that of the last species.
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| Pl. 76. |
| Buff Ermine Moth. |
| Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon. |
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| Pl. 77. |
| Buff Ermine Moth and varieties. |
The moth, which emerges in June, is rarely seen away from its favourite haunts, which are marshes and fens; its English name is therefore a very appropriate one. It is not often observed in the daytime, but is on the wing early in the evening, and later on is pretty sure to be attracted to any strong light that may be set up in its neighbourhood. The best localities for the species seem to be the fens of Norfolk and Cambridge, but it used to be fairly plentiful in many suitable parts of East Kent, and no doubt still occurs in some of the marshes between Dartford and Gravesend: it is found in Sussex in the Lewes and Brighton districts, and has been recorded from Kimmeridge in Dorsetshire, from the Isle of Wight, from near Burton-on-Trent, from the Lancaster district, and from Pembrokeshire, South Wales. In Scotland it is rare, and, with the exception of one example reported as taken in an illuminated moth trap at Clonbrock, May, 1896, not known to occur in Ireland.
The distribution abroad extends over Central and Northern Europe, through South Russia to Amurland.
The Buff Ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda).
This species is now known by the English name of the Buff Ermine, but the names bestowed upon it by some ancient writers were perhaps hardly more suitable. Thus Wilkes in 1773 called it the "Spotted Buff Moth," and Harris five years later dubbed it the "Cream-dot Stripe." The ground colour is generally some shade of buff, in the paler specimens merging into cream, and in the darker to yellowish ochre. In the matter of black marking the range of variation is extensive. The specimens figured on Plate 77 illustrate something of this variation, both as regards colouring and marking. The females are, as a rule, paler than the males, but occasionally examples of the latter sex are quite as pale as any female. Figures 7 and 8 represent var. zatima, Cramer. Originally this form was only known to occur in Heligoland. The same form, or a modification of it, was described by Haworth as radiata, from a Yorkshire specimen. Then, in 1837, specimens of the variety were reared with the normal form of the species from caterpillars obtained at Saltfleet in Lincolnshire; and subsequently a few more examples were reported from the last named county, and elsewhere. In 1891 a specimen of var. zatima emerged from an assortment of chrysalids sent to Mr. Harrison of Barnsley from a London correspondent. This particular specimen was of the female sex, and it paired with a male which was also an aberration, but not of the zatima form. Some of the offspring resulting from this union were of the female parent form, others favoured the male parent, and others again were intermediate. In the course of a few generations almost entire broods of the zatima variety were obtained. Allowing the sexes of zatima to mate with those of more or less ordinary lubricipeda, the late Mr. W. H. Tugwell obtained many very interesting aberrations, one of which he named var. eboraci, and another fasciata. The zatima form and its various modifications have now been reared by entomologists all over the country, and presumably directly or indirectly from the original Barnsley stock. In Yorkshire especially the race has been improved; the specimens are larger and darker, and there is a tendency towards the almost entirely black form known as var. deschangei.
The pale whitish green eggs are laid in batches on leaves, sometimes high up on birch trees, or virginia creeper, but more usually on the foliage of low growing plants; it is often common in gardens. At first the caterpillar is tinged with yellowish, but it afterwards becomes greyish, and finally brownish. When full grown the hairs, with which the body is clothed, are brown; there is a yellowish or whitish grey stripe along each side, and an obscure somewhat reddish tinted line down the middle of the back. Head glossy brown.
The glossy reddish-brown chrysalis is enclosed in a dingy coloured web-like cocoon, which is spun up among leaves or litter on the ground. Mr. R. Adkin found some of these cocoons spun up between the folds of an old brown blanket used as a covering for a rabbit hutch in winter. The moth emerges in June. Occasionally, in confinement, specimens will leave the chrysalis in the autumn instead of passing the winter therein, as they more usually do (Plate 76).
A common and often abundant species over the greater part of the British Isles. Its range abroad extends through Central and Northern Europe, South Russia, and Tartary to Amurland, Corea, and West China.
The Muslin (Diaphora mendica).
The early British authors knew this moth as the "Spotted Muslin" or "Seven Spot Ermine" (Harris, 1778). The male is dark brown or blackish, with a few usually obscure black dots on each wing. The female is silky white, with more clearly defined, and often more numerous, black dots (Plate 75, Figs. 4-6). On Plate 78 will be found figures of the rarer and more extreme aberrations of the female. Those represented by Figs. 3, 4, 6, 7, were reared some years ago by Mr. G. T. Porritt, of Huddersfield, who at the same time obtained a number of other interesting intermediate examples ("Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.," 1889, p. 441, Pl. 14). Variation in the other direction is towards the complete suppression of the black dots; and I have seen specimens with only one such dot on each wing.
In the var. rustica, shown on the same plate, it will be noted that the males assimilate somewhat to the female coloration; the specimens (Figs. 1, 2), were bred by Mr. Robert Adkin in 1887. This form was not known to occur in the British Isles until 1885, when Mr. de V. Kane detected specimens in a collection of insects made in Co. Cork, Ireland. It was next heard of from Belfast, and then, in 1886, again, in Co. Cork, an example of each sex was taken. The female specimen laid eggs, and some of these were sent to Mr. Adkin, who not only was successful in rearing the moths, but in 1889 obtained a pairing between an almost white male rustica and an ordinary English female. Only four eggs were laid, and from these two male moths resulted in May, 1890, both intermediate in colour between the two forms. In all its early stages rustica is identical with ordinary mendica.
Male specimens with pale yellowish grey coloured wings have been reared from eggs laid by a female captured at Eltham, Kent, exhibiting a tendency to the rustica form. In the Barnsley district, Yorkshire, the males are paler than usual, but in the Sheffield area of the same county the males are black. From North Durham chrysalids, I have a smoky greyish form of the male.
The caterpillar is brownish grey covered with yellowish brown hairs arising from greyish-ringed pale brown warts; a paler line along the middle of the back, and some white dots forming a broken line below the black outlined spiracles. Head pale chestnut brown, glossy. When newly hatched it is whitish, tinged with yellow and semi-transparent; the dots and hairs are dark grey. After the first moult the colour is greyish with black dots and blackish hairs. Head yellowish, brown tinged. It feeds in July, sometimes earlier, and August, and seems to thrive on the foliage of many kinds of low-growing plants, such as dandelion, dock, plantain, chickweed, etc., and also eats the leaves of birch and rose. Chrysalis, very dark brown, almost black, glossy, but minutely pitted, giving a roughened appearance; enclosed in a close fitting cocoon composed of silk and the caterpillar's hairs, with particles of earth on the outside (Plate 79). The moth flies at night, and except that a female may occasionally be seen on the wing, this species is rarely observed in the daytime. May and June are the usual months for this moth, but in 1906 a specimen was attracted to light on November 3.
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| Pl. 78. | ||
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| Pl. 79. |
| Muslin Moth. |
| Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon. |
Widely distributed, and often common in most English counties, in parts of Wales, and in Scotland as far north at least as Ross. In Ireland one male specimen of the typical form has been obtained in Co. Galway, and one in Co. Clare; var. rustica occurs in Co. Dublin, and Kings Co., Waterford, Cork, Kerry, and Galway.
The Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa).
The English name given to this moth only suitably applies to the southern reddish form of the species (Plate 80, Fig. 1 ♂). In the north of England the fore wings are darkened with brownish and the hind wings with blackish tints, until in Scotland the only trace of red colour is found on the inner edge of the hind wings (var. borealis, Staudinger, Fig. 2 ♀). In these dark specimens the body is also blackish. Very occasionally, specimens approaching the northern form are obtained in South England. A female moth captured by Mr. G. E. J. Crallan in May, 1901, at Bournemouth, laid forty-eight eggs; thirty imagines were bred the same year, two of which were borealis. On the south and south-west coasts the black band of the hind wings exhibit a tendency to break up into spots; not infrequently this is completely effected, and the specimens then approach the larger South European form var. fervida, Staud. In a fine series of this species from Cornwall, lately seen in Mr. A. Harrison's collection, are a few specimens that come very close to the last-named form. A yellow aberration has been recorded. The eggs are whitish and deposited in batches on leaves. Up to the last moult the caterpillar is greyish or brownish, with dark greyish or blackish warts from which arise star-like tufts of brown hairs; a reddish line along the middle of the back, and some reddish spots on the sides. When full grown it is black, and the reddish line on the back is almost hidden by closer and more compact tufts of black hairs. Head black and glossy.
The leaves of various low-growing plants afford it nourishment, but it is very partial to dock, dandelion, golden-rod (Solidago), and plantain; it is also fond of groundsel and lettuce in confinement, but these plants have been found unsuitable if given too frequently. In the open it seems to feed through the summer, hibernate when full grown, reappear in the early spring, and in due course spin its brownish cocoon among herbage generally low down near the ground; on moors it often makes the cocoon among the twigs of heather as shown on Plate 81. The chrysalis is black, marked with yellowish on the hind edge of each ring. The vitality of the caterpillar is extraordinary. One known to have been embedded in ice for fourteen days at least, became active in less than half an hour after the ice around it melted. It pupated shortly afterwards.
When eggs are obtained early, it is possible to have three generations of the moth during the same year. Thus eggs deposited on May 8 produced caterpillars which fed up quickly and attained the moth state in July. From July eggs some of the caterpillars will outstrip their companions, pupate in September, and appear as moths about a month later. The moth is to be found in May and June, sometimes in July or August, in wood clearings, on moors and rough hillsides, and also in water meadows, etc. It flies at night, is attracted by light, and although it occasionally flies in the sunshine, it is, as a rule, not often seen in the daytime. Occurs throughout the British Isles to the Orkneys. Distribution: Europe, Western and Central Asia, Amurland, Japan, North-west Africa, North America.
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| Pl. 80. | ||
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| Pl. 81. | ||
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The Wood Tiger (Parasemia plantaginis).
On Plate 80 are shown some of the forms of this attractive and somewhat variable species. Figs. 3, 4, are male and female of the typical form found in England. The most usual phase of variation is in the narrowing or widening of the pale yellowish markings of the fore wings, and the black markings on the hind wings; occasionally the yellow or the black increases to such an extent that the fore wings appear to be almost entirely of the one colour or the other. The hind wings range in colour from the normal yellow through orange to red, and through pale shades of yellow to white; on the other hand they are sometimes almost entirely black. The var. hospita, Schiff. (Fig. 7), has all the wings white, and although it has been reported from Shropshire, West Durham, the Lake District, etc., it has been chiefly obtained in the Hebrides and in the highlands of Scotland. Only males of this form are known; the females found with them have heavy black markings on the hind wings, almost crowding out the reddish ground colour. The creamy markings of the fore wings are narrow, and the central spot small.
The full-grown caterpillar is blackish above with greyish-black warts from which arise tufts of blackish hairs, except on rings four to six, where the hairs and the warts at the base of each tuft are reddish; the black hairs of the hinder tufts are the longest (Plate 81).
Twelve eggs laid by a female in Aberdeenshire were received on June 29, 1906. They were shining yellowish in colour, and were on a leaf of plantain. The caterpillars resulting from these eggs were reared on a mixed diet of forget-me-not (Myosotis), plantain, and groundsel, but evinced a decided preference for the former. Some died young in moulting, but at the beginning of August five were full grown, and four duly pupated in a slight but roomy cocoon of silk, mixed with the caterpillar's hairs, in which the blackish brown chrysalis with the cast-off skin attached to the tail was plainly visible. Four moths, all female, emerged at the end of August, when the other caterpillar was still feeding, and seemingly about mature. That caterpillar did not, however, pupate, or survive the winter. As a rule the caterpillars hibernate when about half grown, and feed up in April and May of the following year. The somewhat unusual rate at which those just mentioned completed their growth was no doubt due to the heat of the summer of 1906.
The moth is to be found on heaths, moors, the slopes of chalk, and limestone hills; also in woods that are not too thickly timbered and have a good undergrowth of heather, etc. The males may sometimes be seen flying in the sunshine, and they will then be noted to wing their way to some particular spot where most likely a freshly emerged female will be the attraction. The male is often started up from the heather or other herbage as one walks along; or it may even rise from the bare ground upon which it sometimes has a fancy to sit. The female seems to be more sluggish during the daytime.
The species is widely distributed over the British Isles, and its range extends through Central and Northern Europe, and Northern Asia to Japan.
The Clouded Buff (Diacrisia sanio).
Fore wings of the male yellow, with a reddish and greyish central mark; hind wings whitish, with blackish central spot and outer band; the inner margin, fringes, and front edge light crimson. The female has orange fore wings with reddish margins, veins, and central mark; hind wings orange, with black basal area, central spot, and outer band (Plate 82).
The female of this species is so different in appearance from the male that it was described by Linnæus as distinct, under the name russula. In the tenth edition of "Systema Naturæ" it is No. 510, whereas sanio, the male, is No. 506. We must, therefore, in accordance with the law of priority, adopt the earliest name for the species, however much we regret having to discard the old familiar name of russula.
Although the central spot of the fore wings is subject to minor modification in size, shape, and colour, it is in the hind wings that variation chiefly occurs. In the male the blackish grey band on the outer area of the hind wing may be broad and complete, or it may be broken up by the veins into a series of bars; then, again, the bars tend to become smaller and smaller until only tiny portions remain. Usually, the basal third of the hind wings is more or less greyish, but sometimes the whole surface almost, or quite up to the outer band, is clouded with dark grey. The black markings of the female hind wings are apt to vary in a very similar way.
The caterpillar is reddish brown, covered with brown hairs; a yellow-marked whitish stripe along the back, and two darkish stripes on the sides; a white spot below each black margined spiracle. It hatches from the egg in July, and as a rule hibernates when still small, completing growth in April and May. It feeds on the leaves of many low plants, among which are dandelion, dock, chickweed, and plantain. The chrysalis is brown, streaked with greyish, and is enclosed in a flimsy cocoon among herbage, generally on the ground.
The moth, which inhabits heaths and mosses, is on the wing in June and early July; the male may be put up on sunny days, but the female is not often seen until early evening. After dark both sexes may be found on the heather.
It should be noted here that there are usually two broods of this species abroad, and that in confinement it will develop a more or less complete second brood in September with us. An instance is recorded of sixty-three out of sixty-six caterpillars from eggs laid in early July, feeding up and producing moths in the last week of September. The caterpillar is not an easy one to deal with during hibernation, so that it would always be to the advantage of the rearer to get it through to the perfect state the same year, whenever possible.
The species is widely distributed over the south and east of England, and South Wales. It occurs in Cheshire in all suitable places; in Lancashire it is common on the moorlands, as at Witherslack and Methop, and it is not uncommon near Quernmore, Clougha, and other places, in July. Local and somewhat scarce as a rule in Yorkshire, but recorded as not uncommon in the Scarborough district. In Scotland it is found in Roxburghshire, and northwards to Aberdeen; and, according to Kane, it is widely spread, although local, in Ireland.
The Garden Tiger (Arctia caia).
How frequently the collector has had introduced to his notice, by some non-entomological friend, or worthy cottage dame, a "fine butterfly," only to find that the supposed prize, usually imprisoned under an inverted tumbler, was just an ordinary specimen of the gaudy, but common, Garden Tiger. Few persons living in the country, and at all interested in the natural objects around them, will fail to recognize the portraits on Plate 82; other figures, however, on Plate 84 will appear strange, and yet they only portray some of the many forms which the moths assume. Possibly it would be true to say that no two specimens could be found that were exactly identical in tint and marking. Even the markings of any one example are frequently not precisely alike on corresponding wings. Normally the fore wings are white or creamy-white with dark brown markings, and the hind wings are red with deep blue centred black spots, often ringed with yellow. The dark markings of the fore wings are most inconstant in size and in form; in some cases they are so greatly enlarged that these wings might be described as dark brown with narrow, irregular whitish markings (Plate 84, Fig. 1). On the other hand, but less frequently perhaps, the dark markings are narrowed, shortened, and reduced in number, until only spots remain on a white or creamy ground (Plate 84, Fig. 2). The red colour of the hind wings is sometimes crimson in tone, or it assumes an orange tint, and less often it gives place to yellow; the central spots often unite and form a band, or some, occasionally all, disappear; the marginal spots sometimes run into a band.
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| Pl. 82. | ||
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| Pl. 83. |
| Clouded Buff Moth. |
| Eggs natural size and enlarged; caterpillar. |
Besides aberration, such as that referred to above, curious abnormal specimens occur in the breeding cage from time to time, but these are often more or less deformed. It is, perhaps, remarkable, that so few "good things" in the way of varieties are obtained from collected caterpillars, even when these are reared by hundreds. Possibly, if the breeder started operations with a stock of eggs from unusually pale or unusually dark females, and then reserving only the lightest or the darkest, as required, of each generation to continue the experiment, some interesting light or dark "strains" might result in course of time. The objection to this is that before the desired result was obtained the stock might be weakened by "inbreeding," and the moths consequently deformed. If, however, the same line of experiment were conducted by several people, each living in a different part of the country, and with stock selected from the products of his own locality, eggs, caterpillars, or chrysalids might be exchanged, say, after the second year, and in this way the effect of "inbreeding" would be minimized.
The caterpillar, generally known as the "Woolly Bear," is not at all an uncommon object throughout the country, and is, perhaps, even more often noticed in gardens, including those of suburban London. The figures of the early stages of this moth, on Plate 85, are all from material obtained in my own small garden.
The foliage of pretty well all low plants, and tall ones, such as the hollyhock and sunflower, too, seem to be equally acceptable to this larva. It is not often seen before hibernation, but in the early days of spring it will be noticed sunning itself on walls and fences that have a good crop of nettles, dock, or other weeds at their base or around them; or it may be searched for on the undersides of dock, etc. Mr. Frohawk records these caterpillars as swarming from mid-May to mid-June, 1904, in the Scilly Isles. He states that they occurred in such myriads that no vegetation escaped them, and that they devoured anything from stonecrop to the foliage of shrubs of various kinds. Every path and roadway was dotted all over with their crushed bodies.
In the open the moth is on the wing in July and sometimes in August. When kept indoors the caterpillars, or at least some of them, will feed up quickly and attain the moth state in September or October.
The species is distributed over the whole of Europe, except Andalusia, Sicily, and the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and its range extends through Asia to Amurland, Corea, and Japan.
The Cream-spot Tiger (Arctia villica).
Although this moth does not vary to the same extent as its cousin the Garden Tiger, it is still subject to considerable aberration in the size, number, and position of the yellowish-white, or cream-coloured spots on the fore wings and of the black spots and hind marginal markings of the hind wings. The former are often much reduced in size, rarely perhaps so greatly as to leave the fore wings almost entirely black; but they are sometimes so greatly enlarged and united that these wings appear to be cream coloured with black markings. On the hind wings the black spots nearest the base are sometimes widened and lengthened so as to meet and form a transverse band; in other specimens the black markings on the outer area are run together into a patch. Occasionally both forms of hind wing aberration occur in the same specimen. I am not aware of any case in which the hind wings are spotless, but I have seen specimens in which this condition was very closely approached. Very rarely the hind wings are suffused with black, and at least two specimens with all the wings suffused with black have been recorded. (Plate 87, Figs. 1-3.)
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| Pl. 84. |
| Garden Tiger varieties. |
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| Pl. 85. |
| Garden Tiger Moth. |
| Eggs, natural size and enlarged; caterpillars and chrysalis. |
The pearly white eggs are laid in neatly arranged batches on leaves. The caterpillars hatch out in July, feed for a few weeks, and go into hibernation while still small. They resume feeding in a favourable season as early as mid-March. Some that I obtained at the end of March, then about three parts grown, began to spin up on April 15. The full-grown caterpillar is black with several star-like clusters of brown hairs on each ring, the hairs on the back of the hinder rings rather longer and slightly curved backwards; the head, legs, and claspers are red, approaching crimson. A diet of dandelion suits it very well, but it will also eat chickweed, dock, nettle, groundsel, and in fact almost any low-growing plant. The outer leaves of lettuce are useful on occasion but should not be given exclusively, and it also likes the tender shoots of gorse (Ulex europæus). Chrysalis and cocoon somewhat similar to those of the last species (Plate 86).
The moth emerges in May and June. Occasionally a few larvæ will feed up and the moths appear the same year, but this only happens in captivity and not in the open. When reposing in the daytime, on a hedgebank for example, with the fore wings closed down over and hiding the yellow hind wings this moth is not so conspicuous as one might suppose it would be. At night it is active on the wing and often flies into houses, attracted by the light. I have put up specimens now and then in hay fields, and once found half a dozen along a short stretch of the Upper cliff at Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
It is perhaps most frequent in the south-west, but the species seems to be widely distributed and fairly common from Kent to Cornwall, and westward from Hampshire to Gloucestershire. It also occurs in the eastern counties to Cambridge and Norfolk. From Cheshire it has been twice reported, and two specimens are said to have been taken, a few years ago, in the Lancaster district.
The Jersey Tiger (Callimorpha quadripunctaria).
This handsome species long known as C. hera, Linn., but for which Poda's earlier name quadripunctaria must be adopted, has its English home in South Devonshire. The species had been recorded as British as far back as 1855, when one moth was taken at Newhaven in Sussex; in 1859 a specimen was obtained in North Wales, two were taken in Sussex, 1868, and one was captured in the Isle of Wight in 1877. The last-mentioned example was kindly presented to me by the captor, Mr. Rowland Brown. For the county of Devon, the earliest record is that of a specimen netted in a garden at Alphington, near Exeter, in 1871, followed soon after by a report of others at a place near Lodderwell. Ten or eleven years later the moth was found at Dawlish, and in that neighbourhood and in other parts of a wide area stretching from Exeter to Teignmouth, and perhaps further west, it has been taken almost every year up to the present time (1907). Large numbers of eggs have been obtained and distributed among entomologists, many of whom have successfully wintered the caterpillars and eventually reared the moths.
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| Pl. 86. |
| Cream-spot Tiger Moth. |
| Caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon. |
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| Pl. 87. |
| 1, 2. Cream-spot Tiger Moth, males; 3 female. |
The principal variation is in the colour of the hind wings and the body, which usually are red, but in var. lutescens, Staud., are yellow; between the red and the yellow forms there are all kinds of orange and other intergrades. There is also variation in the black markings at the inner angle of the fore wings, some or all of which are sometimes absent. A specimen with the inner margin of the fore wings black instead of creamy-white has been recorded, and a specimen with whitish hind wings is stated to have been seen but not secured. The moth is shown on Plate 89, and the early stages on Plate 88.
The eggs, which are laid in batches, are pale yellowish when deposited, but assume a deep violet tint before hatching. Mr. W. Hewett (Entom. xxviii.) states that in the case of seventeen female moths that he captured in August, 1895, the average number of eggs laid by each was 133, and as regards fourteen batches of eggs, the caterpillars hatched out in fifteen or sixteen days.
When nearly full grown the caterpillar is blackish with an orange stripe along the back and a series of creamy white spots on the sides; the hairs, arising from shining light brown warts, are pale brown mixed with greyish ones; spiracles black ringed with white, under surface greyish. Head black and glossy. It hatches from the egg in the autumn and goes into hibernation while still very small; reappearing in the spring and feeding on until July, when it spins a flimsy silken web-like cocoon well down among moss and litter. The food plants are dandelion, white deadnettle (Lamium album), ground ivy (Nepeta glechoma), groundsel, plantain, nettle, borage (Borago officinalis), and lettuce.
The moth emerges in July and August in a state of nature, but often as early as June in confinement. It sits by day among the herbage, and in the bushes of hedgerows, but readily quits its retreat when disturbed. The normal time of flight is at night; and that light has an attraction for the moths is evident from the fact that they have been known to fly into cottages at the rate of three or four in an evening.
The species is distributed throughout Southern Europe, its range extending to Holland, Belgium, and Livonia. It was known as an inhabitant of the Channel Islands long before it became established in England.
The Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula).
Except in minor details this tropical-looking moth (Plate 89) seems little given to variation in England. In parts of Central and Southern Europe, and Asia Minor, striking forms occur, and some of these are very occasionally found with us. Among such rare aberrations in this country are var. rossica, Kol., with yellow hind wings; and var. bithynica, Staud., with the spots on the fore wings yellow, and the hind wings of the normal crimson colour. A South European form, var. persona, Hübn., has the hind wings and body black, with some yellow marks on the basal area; spots on the fore wings smaller than in the type. Specimens approaching this form have been reported from Kent, which county is also noted for "black dominula." In the latter variety the hind wings, body, and spots on fore wings are blackish; it is exceedingly rare. A specimen taken at St. Margaret's Bay, Kent, some years back has the spots on the fore wings blurred, due to a cloudy suffusion filling up the space between them; the spots on the hind wings are pale.
Caterpillar, black, hairy, with bands of more or less connected spots, yellow or yellowish in colour, down the middle of the back, and along the sides; the hairs, arising from shining black warts, are grey with some black ones intermixed. Head, glossy black. It hatches from the egg in July or August, feeds for awhile, then hibernates, and completes its growth in April or May. A number of plants have been mentioned as suitable food for these caterpillars, but the favourites are, perhaps, nettle, groundsel, hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale), bramble, sloe, and sallow (Plate 88).
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| Pl. 88. | ||
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| Pl. 89. | ||
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The chrysalis is dark reddish, rather blacker above; enclosed in a silken cocoon spun up among leaves, etc., on the ground.
The moth emerges in June, and seems partial to marshy ground. It is found in the district between Dover and Deal commonly, and in other parts of Kent more rarely. Also in Hampshire, Devon, Dorset, South Wales, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire (water meadows by the Kennet), and Hertfordshire (rare). Some years ago I found a few specimens in the Brandon district, but it is not plentiful in Suffolk, and is rare in or absent from Norfolk. It is found in Cambridgeshire, chiefly in Wicken fen.
Note.—Although Callimorpha is here left in its old position among Arctiidæ, the genus has been referred by Hampson to Hypsidæ, a family of moths belonging to the African, Oriental, and Australian regions. Our two species are the sole representatives of the family in Europe.
The Feathered Footman (Coscinia striata).
Altogether there do not appear to have been more than six or seven specimens of this species (Plate 90) recorded as British. Stephens mentions three of these, two males taken in the autumn of 1815, near Windsor; and one specimen, without date, in the Isle of Anglesea. Of the others one appears to have been taken in Yorkshire (1832), one in Essex, and another in North Wales (1859). Barrett also refers to a specimen, which was captured but afterwards escaped, near Bettws-y-Coed, North Wales, June, 1859, and gives some circumstantial details of the event. It appears, therefore, that of the very limited number of British striata North Wales has furnished almost half. The species is widely distributed in Europe, except the most northern part; the range extending into Asia Minor, Syria, Armenia, and Amurland. Abroad, it occurs on heaths, and in warm dry places. The caterpillar is blackish-brown, marked with orange on the back, and white on the sides; the warts are yellowish, and the hairs arising therefrom are reddish brown; the head is black. It feeds in spring, after hibernation, on grasses, heather, and low herbage, and becomes full grown in May.
The Speckled Footman (Coscinia cribrum).
The fore wings are whitish, crossed by three rows of blackish grey dots, more or less connected, forming lines; and two streaks of the same colour through the length of the wings, but not always extending to the outer margin; a cross series of wedge-shaped marks or dots on the outer area; hind wings grey. Sometimes the fore wings are wholly suffused with the darker colour, and between such specimens and less frequent examples in which the wings are almost devoid of marking, there are many gradations (Plate 90, Figs. 1 ♂, 2 ♀; 4, 5, 6 vars.).
Eggs received from the New Forest, June 25, 1907, were laid around a slender, bare, twig of heather, the batch measuring about three-quarters of an inch in length. At first they were golden yellow, but afterwards became pale purplish brown and very glossy (Plate 91).
Although the eggs appear to be more frequently laid on heather than on anything else, the caterpillars do not seem to be very partial to the plant as an article of food if others are available. At the present time (October 13) I have about a score or so of young larvæ feeding, and apparently thriving, on dandelion, lettuce, and grass, but they certainly seem to prefer the first named. They are now rather over half an inch in length, and yellowish brown in colour; there is a whitish grey stripe along the back; the warts are shining black, and the hairs arising from them are black, mixed with a few longer white ones; head blackish.
Caterpillars after hibernation have been found on the grass, Aira cæspitosa, during March from about the 10th onwards; they are then about a quarter of an inch long, and according to the late Mr. Fowler, always found on the sunny side of the clumps of Aira stretched out, and evidently enjoying the warmth of the sun. Some collected in that month were reared on groundsel, and produced moths from July 12 to August 20. The chrysalis is at first reddish, afterwards shining jet black; in a slight egg-shaped white silken cocoon, spun up in tufts of grass.
In exceptional seasons the moth has emerged in late May, but June and July are the usual months, and it may occur as late as August. It rests among the heather, is easily disturbed on sunny days, and is very active on the wing, although it does not fly far before settling again. The species is very local in England, and only found on a heath near Bournemouth, in a heathy district between Ringwood and Verwood in Dorset, and in a not generally known part of the New Forest.
The Crimson Speckled (Deiopeia pulchella).
This white moth, prettily speckled with black and red dots, is a native of warmer countries than ours. However, it not only visits us now and then in the course of its wanderings, but if the migrants arrive in England at a suitable time of the year, the females most probably deposit eggs from which caterpillars may hatch, and some of them feed up and produce moths later in the same year. Stephens, writing in 1829, mentions a specimen taken many years previously in Yorkshire. This was no doubt the earliest known British example of Haworth's Crimson Speckled. A second specimen captured in a field near Christchurch, Hants, in October, 1818, was figured by Samouelle in 1819. Between the year last mentioned and 1827, two other specimens occurred, both at Hove, Sussex. Stainton (1857) adds Epping, Manchester, Stowmarket, and Worthing. In 1869 three specimens were taken in the autumn; and a specimen was found at Scarborough in June, 1870, and one in Sussex. In 1871 a record was established, when at least thirty specimens were obtained at various places on the east, south, and south-west coasts, and in the Isle of Wight; one specimen being also recorded from Manchester. Two specimens were taken in Cornwall, May, 1874, and in the autumn of that year three occurred on the south coast, and one in Derbyshire. The moth seems not to have been noticed in the springs of 1875 or 1876, but twenty-four specimens were recorded later in the former year, and twenty-three in the latter. Between 1876 and 1892 less than twenty specimens were reported altogether, and the species was either entirely absent or overlooked in 1877, 1882, 1883, and from 1887 to 1891, inclusive. In 1892 several moths were captured in May and June on the coast; one at Brighton in July, two in the Hastings' district, and one at Folkestone in August. Since 1892 and up to 1907, a period of fifteen years, the species seems to have been rarely noted in England; the records showing in 1894 (2), 1895 (1), 1906 (1). In 1901 three specimens were reported as captured, and one seen at Earlsfield, Surrey, July 1 to 15. (Plate 92, Figs. 3, 4.)
The caterpillar is greyish with black warts from which arise tufts of hairs, blackish on the back and pale greyish on the sides; a white line on the back, and one on the sides. Each ring is often barred with orange. Head reddish-ochreous marked with black. Feeds on forget-me-not (Myosotis), borage (Borago), etc. The chrysalis is reddish brown, enclosed in a white silken cocoon spun up among the food plant, or on the surface of the ground; in the latter case particles of earth adhere to the outside.
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| Pl. 90. | ||
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| Pl. 91. |
| Speckled Footman: eggs and caterpillar. |
The caterpillar is said to feed only in the sunshine, so that in our islands the weather conditions would often be most unfavourable to the species in the larval state. On the other hand its sun-loving habit would expose it to the attacks of parasitical flies and other enemies. Anyway, the Crimson Speckled seems quite unable to increase and multiply to any extent even for a season in any part of England. Along the African and European borders of the Mediterranean there are evidently several generations of the moth in each year; the life cycle of the summer broods being short, but more protracted in the later brood. Brownlow states that eggs laid on October 20, hatched on the 22nd of the same month, and the caterpillar stage lasted until February of the following year. Distribution: Southern Europe, Africa, Canaries, Madeira; Asia Minor, Armenia, Central Asia; India, and Australia.
Meyrick and others refer this species to Utetheisa, Hübn.
The Cinnabar (Hipocrita jacobææ).
This species was named the Cinnabar by Wilkes in 1773, such name of course referring to the more or less vermillion colour of the hind wings and the markings on the greyish black fore wings. The hind wings are often pinkish in tint, and probably it was to such specimens that Moses Harris gave the name "Pink Underwing." Very rarely the stripe on the front edge of the fore wings unites with the upper hind marginal spot; still less frequently there are some crimson scales in addition connecting the two hind marginal spots. Occasionally specimens have been recorded in which the usual red colour is replaced by bright yellow. The moth is shown on Plate 92, Figs. 1, 2, and the early stages on Plate 93, Fig. 1.
The caterpillar is orange yellow and each ring is banded with purplish black; the scanty hairs are short and blackish in colour. Head black. Feeds in July and August on ragwort (Senecio jacobæa) and sometimes occurs in such numbers as to completely clear large patches of the plant of every particle of green, leaving nothing but the tougher portions of the bare stems.
The chrysalis is dark-brown tinged with reddish; in a slight silken cocoon just under the surface of the ground, or among any loose material on the ground.
Fig. 24. Cinnabar Caterpillars Feeding. (Photo by W. J. Lucas.)
The moth is on the wing at the end of May and in June; odd specimens have occasionally been seen in April. It occurs on waste ground, sandy heaths, railway banks, downs, and hill-sides. Although fairly common generally, in some years it is not at all plentiful even when caterpillars may have abounded the previous season. When disturbed from among its food plant or herbage around, it is not very active on the wing, and is easily captured. Its usual time of flight is in the evening. Light seems to have an attraction for it, as it has been taken at gas lamps in towns, some distance from any place where the caterpillar could have fed.
Occurs in all suitable places throughout the greater part of England and in Scotland up to Moray. Common in Ireland. Its range abroad includes all Europe, except the extreme north and extends into Asia.
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| Pl. 93. | ||
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