The Bright-line Brown-eye (Mamestra oleracea).
The English name of this very common moth (Plate [120], Figs. 4, 5), applies to the majority of specimens, but now and then the ochreous, or yellow reniform stigma, referred to as the brown eye, is blurred and indistinct, and the white submarginal line may almost disappear. The ground colour of the fore wings ranges from reddish or purple brown to dark brown. The caterpillar (Plate [129], Fig. 1), varies from green to light brown, sometimes the brownish forms are tinged with pink; the body is minutely dotted with white, and the usual dots are black; the spiracles are white, margined with black, and placed on the blackish edge of a yellow stripe; there are three greyish, but frequently indistinct, lines on the back. It feeds from July to September on most low plants, and is often found in abundance under spreading clumps of goose-foot (Chenopodium), and has been noted in profusion upon tamarisk growing by the sea. The moth flies in June and July, sometimes in the autumn. Except, perhaps, in the Hebrides, it has been found throughout the British Isles.
The Light Brocade (Mamestra genistæ).
The moth portrayed on Plate [121], Fig. 1, is not given to much variation. The central area enclosed by the cross lines is
more or less clouded with reddish or purplish brown, not extending, as a rule, below the black bar between the lines, but sometimes the inner area is clouded with purplish from the second cross line to the base of the wing. The caterpillar is pale olive greenish above, with brownish and blackish diamonds or V-shaped markings; three lines on the back are dark-edged but indistinct; a cloudy line along the white spiracles. The colour varies from greenish to brownish grey or purplish brown, and all shades may occur in the same brood. It feeds in July and August on broom, dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria), persicaria, and other low plants. The moth is out in May and June, and may be seen in the daytime on palings and other kinds of fencing, and also on tree trunks. It occurs in England from Worcestershire and Northampton southwards, but seems to be rarely met with northwards. Four or five specimens were taken at electric light near Tarporley, Cheshire, about 1900 (Day's List). It has been recorded from Ayr, Argyll, and Paisley in Scotland, but its occurrence in Ireland is doubtful. The distribution abroad ranges to Eastern Siberia.
The Dog's Tooth (Mamestra dissimilis).
The example of this species shown on Plate [121], Fig. 2, is of the reddish-tinged pale brown form from Essex; but in that county, and also in other parts of England, the fore wings are sometimes clouded with sooty-brown. In other forms the fore wings are purplish or reddish brown, and the markings may be very distinct, or much obscured. The caterpillar is greenish or brown, minutely dotted with white, and freckled with dark greyish; the usual dots are black; there are indications of darker lines on the back, but these are not always clearly defined; the white spiracles are set in the black interrupted edge of a yellowish stripe. It feeds in July and August, on dock, plantain, etc. The moth flies in June and July, and occasionally in the autumn. Its haunts are marshy places, especially on the coast, and mosses; and it is found in most of the seaboard southern and eastern counties, and more rarely inland. Recorded from Ayr and Kirkcudbright in Scotland; is widely distributed in Ireland, and not rare in Louth and Kerry.
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