The Rustic (Caradrina taraxaci).
Compared with the last species, the one now considered (Plate [151], Fig. 7) has browner fore wings, inclining to brownish or blackish, smoother and glossy; and the markings are usually rather obscure. The hind wings are silky, and whiter in the male.
The caterpillar is greyish brown, with an olive tinge; central line dark brown, expanding on each ring; on either side of this is a brown-edged white line; a light brown line along the spiracles; head ochreous brown. It feeds from September to April on low plants, such as dock, chickweed, plantain, etc.
The moth flies from late June to early August, and its range in the British Isles is pretty much as in the last species, but more generally distributed than alsines in Ireland.
Vine's Rustic (Caradrina ambigua).
The fore wings of this species (Plate [151], Fig. 8) are rather greyer than those of the last, and the hind wings are shining white, tinged with greyish brown in the female, especially on the veins.
Barrett describes the caterpillar as follows: "Plump, cylindrical; head round, the lobes dark brown, but the face paler; dorsal region between the subdorsal lines broadly yellowish brown, with slender, delicate, oblique lines on each segment; dorsal line a row of black dots, one on each segment; lateral space from the subdorsal lines to the spiracles darker brown or umberous, containing a row of ovate, oblique, yellowish spots, each rather raised into a knob by the wrinkling of the skin; spiracles black; under surface, legs, and prolegs pale rosy brown, except the anal prolegs, which are brown." It feeds from October to May on dandelion, plantain, chickweed, and other low plants; also on lettuce and grass. The moth flies in August and September. Sometimes the caterpillars will feed up and attain the moth state the same year in November or December. The species was not known to occur in England until some specimens were taken by Mr. Vine at sugar, near Shoreham, Sussex, in 1879. Since that year it has been taken more or less freely at several places on the south and south-west coast, from Deal, in Kent, to Truro, in Cornwall.
The Pale Mottled Willow (Caradrina quadripunctata).
The black spots on the front margin of the fore wings of this species (Plate [151], Figs. 9, 10) are pretty constant characters,
and are usually present even when most or all the other markings are absent. The caterpillar is greyish brown, often tinged with green above; the lines are faintly paler, and edged with darker; head blackish. It feeds from September to May on grasses, seeds of plantain; also on peas and corn; often common in stacks of wheat and other grain.