The specimens of this species shown on Plate [123], Figs. 1, 4, are from Shetland, and more or less of the typical form, but rather more variegated, perhaps, than the actual type. In other specimens from the same locality the yellowish submarginal line is band-like; or the ground colour is browner, and sometimes blackish. These blackish examples approach var. assimilis, Doubleday (Fig. 3), from Perthshire, where it was first met with, at Rannoch, by Weaver, over sixty years ago. Exulis (The Exile) was discovered by Mr. H. McArthur in the Shetlands in 1883. In 1896 Mr. P. M. Bright captured a specimen in the Shetlands which Barrett considered referable to maillardi, Hübn. (Geyer, Fig. 833.) "Its ground colour is drab-brown, abundantly marked with umberous and dusted with black, and its only conspicuous marking is the reniform stigma, which is distinctly edged with white in such a manner as to give it a singular resemblance to Mamestra [Barathra] brassicæ." Staudinger, it may be added, adopts maillardi as the earlier name for this species, and it may have to be generally accepted. 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. Mr. W. M. Christy captured one specimen in Ross-shire in August, 1902. The geographical range of this species extends from the Alps and Pyrenees through Norway and Lapland to Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador.
The Minor Shoulder-Knot (Bombycia viminalis).
Figs. 5 and 6 on Plate [125] represent the typical form of this species. Fig. 8 shows the blackish var. obscura, Staud., and Fig. 7 an intermediate form. The pale form is most frequent in southern England, and dark forms are commoner in the north. Both forms occur in Scotland, but in some parts the pale form only is found. The caterpillar is green with three whitish lines on the back; the raised spots are also whitish; the line along the black spiracles is yellowish. It feeds from April to June on sallow and willow; at first on the terminal shoots, the leaves of which are spun together with silk. Later on the caterpillar folds down or rolls a leaf so as to form a shelter. The moth is on the wing in June and July, sometimes later, and is pretty widely distributed throughout the British Isles, but is rather local in Scotland, northern England, and Ireland. The dark form, it may be mentioned, does not seem to be found abroad. The range of the species extends to Amurland.
The Dusky Sallow (Eremobia ochroleuca).
This brownish tinged ochreous moth (Plate [126], Figs. 3, 4) has the fore wings crossed by whitish lines, the first and second of which approach or unite below the middle, dividing into two blotches the dark central band-like shade.
The caterpillar, which feeds on the seeds of cock's-foot (Dactylis) and other kinds of grass from May to early July, is whitish green and glossy; three whitish stripes on the back, the central one broadest; a stripe below the black spiracles is whitish, edged above with green. Mullein (Verbascum) has also been mentioned as eaten by this caterpillar. The moth is out in July and in August, and may often be seen resting on the flowers of knapweed (Centaurea) in the daytime. It flies at night, and has been taken at the flowers of centaurea, ragwort, etc., and at light. In some districts it is said to visit the sugar patch, but not to do so in other localities. Occurs in the chalk districts of most southern English counties, and especially those of Kent and Sussex; also, but only rarely, in Warwickshire and Yorkshire. One specimen has been recorded from Pembrokeshire in Wales.
The Orache Moth (Trachea atriplicis).
In the past this greenish-mottled brownish moth (Plate [126], Fig. 5) appears to have been commoner, and more widely distributed in England than it now is. Wilkes, in 1773, referring to it as "The Wild Arrach," states that it was taken occasionally near London. At the present time the species seems to occur only in the eastern counties, and chiefly in Cambridgeshire. In June, 1904 and 1905, specimens (three in all) were obtained at sugar in Huntingdonshire. The caterpillar is ochreous or reddish brown, dotted with white; three dark lines on the back, the central one only distinct. A yellowish stripe along the black-edged white spiracles; head light reddish brown, glossy. It feeds in July and August on orach (Atriplex), persicaria, knot-grass, and will also eat dock. The range abroad extends to Amurland, Corea, and Japan.