Only three authenticated British examples are known of this dingy grey-brown moth (Plate [28], Fig. 3). The earliest intimation we have of the occurrence of this species in England is the following record by the late Mr. Henry Doubleday in the Entomologist, vol. i. p. 156: "Chaonia crenata. The first British specimen of this insect was taken in Ongar Park Wood, in June, 1839; a second in the same place, in June of the present year. Both specimens were females." The locality mentioned in the foregoing notice which was penned July 10th, 1841, is in the County of Essex. At a meeting of the Entomological Society of London held in April, 1854, the Rev. Joseph Greene exhibited a specimen that he had reared from a caterpillar obtained from a poplar near Halton, in Bucks, August, 1853.
| Pl. 26. |
| Lobster Moth. |
| Pl. 27. |
| Lobster Moth. |
| Egg, enlarged, caterpillars, chrysalis and cocoon. |
According to Buckler the caterpillar is pale green, with a thin whitish line down the middle of the back, a broader yellow line on each side, and some reddish spots on the front and hind rings of the body; the spiracles are black. It spins a somewhat oval-shaped cocoon between two poplar leaves, and therein turns to a glossy blackish brown chrysalis.
Abroad the species is found in Central Europe, North Italy, North-western Russia, Southern Norway, and also in Amurland and Ussuri. There are said to be two broods on the continent, one emergence of moths taking place in April and the other in June or July.
The Marbled Brown (Drymonia trimacula).
Somewhat similar to the next species, but the fore wings are generally whiter; the cross lines are not so straight, and there is no black crescent above the centre of the wings (Plate [28], Fig. 1).