Following Guenée, British entomologists at one time knew this species as oculea; afterwards it became the habit to label it didyma, a name given to it by Esper in 1788. Just now the authorities insist on secalis, Linnæus, being adopted. The species is an exceedingly variable one, and six examples of it are shown on Plate [132], Figs. 6 to 11. The form with blackish fore wings and a white reniform mark is var. leucostigma, Esp. Nictitans, Esp., has brownish fore wings and a white reniform. I-niger, Haw., is greyish or grey brown with darker central band, and the cross lines united by a black bar. Ochreous or reddish ochreous specimens with the front marginal area broadly and irregularly reddish brown, and the outer margin bordered with reddish brown, are referable to var. furca, Haw. Many other forms have been named. The caterpillar is green with three reddish lines on the back; head and plate on the first ring pale brown, also plate on last ring. In stems of grasses such as Festuca, Dactylis, etc., also on wood-rush. From Autumn to April or May. The moth flies in July and August, and is common everywhere in the British Isles; its range abroad extends to Western China.
The Double Lobed (Apamea ophiogramma).
This species (Plate [132], Fig. 5) is usually found in marshy localities, or in gardens, over the eastern counties, and from Northamptonshire through Bucks, and Hertfordshire, to Kent, and Surrey. The caterpillar feeds from September on the shoots of Phalaris arundinacea and the cultivated form of that plant grown in gardens, and known as ribbon grass. Also said to feed on Poa aquatica. When the grass dies down in the late autumn the caterpillar enters the ground to hibernate, and
emerges in the spring ready to attack the young grass shoots as soon as they appear. Where the new growth of ribbon grass assumes a brown and withered appearance this larva will probably be found at the bottom of the trouble. When nearly full grown it eats down the interior of the thicker stems to the base. In colour it is ochreous with a pinkish tinge; a pale brownish plate on first and last rings, each edged with blackish and that on the first ring traversed by a white line; head pale brown, glossy. The moth flies in July and August, sometimes in June.
The Marbled Minor (Miana strigilis).
Half a dozen specimens are shown on Plate [134], and these will serve to give some idea of the range of aberration in this species. The most typical of the species are those represented by Figs. 1 and 4; the farthest removed from the type is var. æthiops, Haworth (Fig. 16). In the reddish var. latruncula, Hübn., as figured by him, the most conspicuous character is the white lower curve of the second cross line, as in Fig. 7.
The caterpillar is purplish brown above, and ochreous below; striped on the back with pale yellow, and less distinctly on the sides; spiracles black and very distinct; head and plates on the first and last rings of the body ochreous brown and shining. Found in March and April, after hibernation, feeding on the stems of various grasses. The moth is out in June and July, and may frequently be seen at rest on palings, etc., but at night it often abounds at sugar or honey dew. Generally distributed in the British Isles, except perhaps in the islands of Scotland.
The Middle-barred Minor (Miana fasciuncula).
In its typical form this species (Plate [134], Fig. 3) has the fore wings reddish ochreous, with a darker central band, and
the cross lines, especially the second, distinctly white towards the inner margin. Sometimes, chiefly in Scotland, the ground colour is much paler, occasionally almost whitish, and the band reddish (var. cana, Staud., Figs. 5, 8). There is a good deal of variation, both in the ground colour and in that of the band; the latter is often smoky brown in pale specimens of both sexes.