Richard South

“ They repose on the branches and leaves of trees and bushes, or among heather and other low herbage, and often fall to the ground when disturbed. At dusk they become active and then fly pretty briskly.
The caterpillars are very hairy, the hairs arising in tufts from warts (tubercles) are usually short, but in some species are of moderate length. The majority hatch from the egg in the late summer, and do not complete their growth until the following year, about May or June. Some of them are known to be more or less active through the winter. ”

“ The caterpillar is greyish, more or less freckled with ochreous; three lines along the back, the central one whitish, the others black and interrupted; the hairs arising from reddish warts are brown or greyish brown. Head black. It feeds from July to October on lichens, chiefly those growing on fir and oak, but also on beech, and on old palings. Chrysalis, glossy dark red-brown in a tight-fitting cocoon of silk mixed with the hairs of the caterpillar; spun up among the lichen. The moth is shown on Plate 92, Figs. 5, 6, and the caterpillar and chrysalis on Plate 93. ”

“ Anyway, the question of form or species may here be left open. The fact of the Northern, or Gregson's, Footman being an exclusive British production invests the insect with an importance greatly above that attaching to the majority of our moths. The moth is depicted on Plate 97, Fig. 8.
The Pigmy Footman (Lithosia lutarella) .
Ochreous white, sometimes tinged with greyish, or with yellowish; hind wings clouded with greyish on the front area. Female almost always smaller than the male. The fore wings vary a good deal in the matter of colour, the extremes being yellow and dark grey. ”

“ In a state of nature most of the caterpillars feed on lichens growing on trees, bushes, rocks, or on the ground, but many kinds in confinement will thrive on a diet of lettuce or even withered leaves. ”

“ The moths of the genus Lithosia, when resting, fold their drab or buff-coloured wings down closely along the body, and they then have a very elongate and stiff appearance which probably gave rise to their English name "Footmen." Most of them are very inactive, or even torpid during the daytime. ”

“ Fore wings, ochreous grey, tinged with yellow on the basal half of the front margins; hind wings paler, becoming greyer on the outer area; fringes of all the wings yellow. The male is fairly constant in colour, but the female sometimes has a distinct yellow stripe on the front margin of the fore wings extending to the fringes (var. ochreola, Hübn.) ; more rarely in the New Forest (?) , and in the Isle of Purbeck a form occurs with the fore wings orange buff, and the hind wings only slightly tinged with grey (var. unicolor, Bankes) . ”

“ The members of this sub-family of Arctiidæ occurring in the British Isles are not numerous; we can only muster some fifteen species, and although a few are not uncommon, several are exceedingly local. ”

“ Its chief haunts are, however, in the fens of Norfolk, such as those on the river Bure, and Brundall fen on the Yare, but Horning and Ranworth are, perhaps, the headquarters of the species. It may be mentioned that when Stephens wrote about this insect in 1829 only two specimens had then occurred in Britain, and these had been found in a marsh at Horning floating upon the water in a ditch.
Distribution: Central Europe, Denmark, Sweden, Livonia, Dalmatia, Corsica and Sardinia, Amurland and Japan. ”