The Black Rustic (Aporophyla nigra).
This black or brownish black moth (Plate [137], Fig. 8) has the outer edge of the reniform stigma ochreous, and the cross lines are sometimes dotted with the same colour. The caterpillar is green, yellowish-brown, or dull purplish; first three rings often tinged with reddish; three darker, often broken, lines along the back; line along the black-edged white spiracles yellowish. It feeds on bedstraw (Galium mollugo), dock, plantain, grasses, etc. October to May. (The egg is figured on Plate [139], Fig. 3.) The moth is out in September and October. Chiefly a northern species, but it occurs in some of the southern counties. It is, however, most frequent in Northampton, Huntingdon, and Cambridgeshire; in Gloucestershire,
and Wales, and in the Isle of Man, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. In Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire it seems to be local or rare. It is found up to Moray in Scotland, and is sometimes plentiful in Aberdeenshire, Inverness, and Moray. Very local in Ireland, but Kane says that it is found in the extreme north, south, east, and west.
The Feathered Brindle (Aporophyla australis).
The fore wings are pale grey, sometimes darker clouded, chiefly on the costa; the black cross lines, slender, wavy, but not always distinct; a short black bar from middle of the base and one below it on the inner margin; often two other bars, pretty much in a line with the basal ones, on the central area; a row of black wedges on the outer area, near margin. Hind wings white in the male, pale brownish grey in the female. Most of our specimens, perhaps all, are referable to var. pascuea, Curtis. The caterpillar is yellowish green tinged with reddish above; a pale reddish line along the middle of the back has black V-shaped marks upon it, and there is a series of black marks on each side; the line along the spiracles yellowish; head green, brown freckled. Feeds, from October to April, on grasses, catchfly (Silene maritima), etc. The moth, which is figured on Plate [137], Figs. 3, 4, is out from late August to October.
This is a local species in England and occurs on the south coast; in Kent, on the sand hills at Deal; in Sussex, on the downs at Brighton and Lewes; also on downs on the Isle of Wight. Farther west it is found at Portland in Dorset, and Torquay in Devon; thence along the Devon and Cornish coasts. In Ireland it is obtained, according to Kane, on the coast of Wicklow and Waterford, and is not scarce on the sand hills of Wexford Harbour.
| Pl. 136. |
| Dark Arches Moth. |
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| Pl. 137. | ||||
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