Richard South

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”