(The Pod Lover), which represents the species in Ireland and the Isle of Man, is of a greyish coloration and lacks the ochreous tint; the dark markings, especially on the area between the first and second cross lines, are blackish or black, and the outlines of the stigmata are very distinct. Kane mentions dull black specimens, from the Blasket Islands, in which only vestiges of the stigmata and submarginal line remained clear. Pembrokeshire specimens have a colour range intermediate between carpophaga (Plate [124], Fig. 9) and var. capsophila (Figs. 7, 8), and serve to connect one with the other. The caterpillar, which is purplish brown with rather broad ochreous-brown lines on the back, feeds in June and July and again in September, on seeds of catchfly, campion, and sweet-william. The moth flies in May and June, sometimes in late July and August.

The Viper's Bugloss (Dianthœcia (Epia) irregularis).

The earliest British specimen of this moth (Plate [125], Fig. 1) of which there is any clear record is that found by the late Rev. A. H. Wratislaw, in July, 1868, resting on viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), in a locality about ten miles from Bury St. Edmunds. Subsequently Tuddenham was indicated as the locality, and there, as well as in other parts of the Breck Sand district of Suffolk and Norfolk the species continues to flourish. Echium was at first supposed to be the food plant, but it was soon ascertained the larval pabulum was the flowers and seeds of the local catchfly (Silene otites). In September, 1870, Mr. Porritt described the caterpillar, and he found that in confinement it did not object to Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) in place of the Silene.

In colour the caterpillar is pale yellowish brown, tinged with green; three more or less distinct pale lines, and a series of smoke-coloured V-shaped marks on the back. Spiracles black with a yellowish white stripe below them, and a smoke-coloured one above; head wainscot brown dotted with black. It may be found on its food plant from late July to early September. The moth flies in June and July, but seems to have been very rarely met with in the open, although large numbers of the caterpillars, which are frequently "ichneumoned," are collected almost every year. A specimen, recently presented to the Lincoln Museum, is said to have been reared from a caterpillar found on viper's bugloss in the neighbourhood of East Ferry in North Lincolnshire.

Pl. 124.
1.White Spot Moth.2.Varied Coronet.
3, 4.Lychnis.5, 6.Campion.
7, 8.Pod Lover.9, 10.Tawny Shears.

Pl. 125.
1.Viper's Bugloss.2.Small Ranunculus.
3, 4.Broad-barred White.5, 6.Minor Shoulder-knot.
7, 8. Minor Shoulder-knot varieties.

The Small Ranunculus (Hecatera chrysozona).