Richard South

“ Usually the caterpillars do not hatch out until the spring, and then feed until June or July; but they have been known to hatch in the autumn, and then to hibernate. The moth flies in August and September, but, although it has been taken at sugar and light, is more frequently reared from caterpillars, which are readily found at night by those who may undertake the sometimes hazardous business of collecting them. The earliest known British specimen was taken at a lighthouse near Padstow in Cornwall, and five years later the moth was bred from a caterpillar found in the Isle of Man. ”

“ Moths of the second generation often abound at the sugar patches, and on ragwort blossom. The colour of the fore wings varies from pale to dark reddish brown in both broods.
The caterpillar is greyish ochreous or brown, with dark-edged paler lines, and the brown head is marked with darker. It feeds on dandelion, dock, grass, etc. Those of the first generation feed from autumn to spring, and those of the second during the summer. The moth is found in almost every part of the British Isles, except, perhaps, the Hebrides and Shetlands. ”

“ The caterpillar is ochreous whitish, shaded with grey, and with yellowish plates on the first and last rings; spiracles black, head reddish brown. It feeds on grasses from August to May, but is sometimes two, or even three, years in completing its growth. When young, and also later, it eats the lower part of the stem and partly into the root of the grass. The moth is out in July and August. Very few examples of the assimilis form have been obtained, and these only in Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, Inverness, and the Isle of Arran. ”