Caterpillar, greyish, or greenish grey, freckled with darker, hairs grey inclining to brownish; a broad creamy or yellowish stripe, edged with black and traversed by a dark central line along the back. Head blackish and glossy. From August to June on lichens growing on stems and branches of yew, oak, and beech.
A local species, and although recorded now and then from several other parts of the country, and once from Killarney in Ireland, seems to be pretty much confined to the counties of Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, and Devon. The moth, which is out in July, rests during the day upon the boughs and among the foliage of oak, beech, and yew, the latter especially in the Dorking district of Surrey.
Distribution: Central Europe, Southern Scandinavia, Livonia, Northern Italy, Roumelia, and Russia.
The Dingy Footman (Lithosia griseola).
Haworth's English name for this moth was the "Dun Footman." In its typical form the fore wings are pale greyish with a yellowish front edging; the latter most distinct towards the base; the hind wings are whitish ochreous more or less suffused with grey. The pale form, var. flava, Haw. = stramineola, Doubl. at one time considered a distinct species (the Straw-coloured Footman of Haworth), has pale straw-coloured fore wings and white ochreous hind wings. (Plate [97], Figs. 4, 5.)
Caterpillar, sooty brown, with a darker line down the middle of the back and an interrupted yellow or orange line or stripe on each side of it; dark brown hairs arising from dark warts; head glossy black (described from a skin). It may be looked for in the spring months on the lichens affecting alders and sallows growing in fens and marshy places. (Plate [98], Fig. 2.)
The moth is abundant in the Cambridge and Norfolk fens, and is common in boggy places in the New Forest, but it probably occurs in all suitable places throughout England and Wales. It does not seem to have been observed in Ireland,
but has been recorded from Moray in Scotland. The yellow variety, which by the way is not known to occur abroad, is found, with the ordinary form, chiefly in the Norfolk fens and in the New Forest; but it is also to be obtained, though less frequently, in Surrey (Weybridge district), Berkshire (Reading district), and still more rarely elsewhere. It is out in July.
Distribution: Central Europe, South Russia, Ural, Altai, Amurland, Corea, Japan, and West Africa.