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.
| Pl. 86. |
| Cream-spot Tiger Moth. |
| Caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon. |
| 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.