To Donovan and the entomologists of his time this moth (Plate [33], Fig. 4) was known by the English name still in use, Stephens considered it a rare insect, and remarks that he once caught a specimen at Darenth Wood, by "mothing," in June, 1820; several other examples had been taken in the same place, and in the neighbouring woods. Although many more localities are now known for the moth, it still continues to be rather a scarce species. It appears to inhabit woods on a chalky soil almost exclusively, and is found less uncommonly in the woods of Buckinghamshire than in its other haunts in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Sussex, Devonshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk. The bulk of the specimens in collections were probably reared from the egg, or from caterpillars obtained by beating or searching the maple bushes growing in the woods frequented by the moth.
The caterpillar is whitish green, rather glossy, with a dark green line along the middle of the back, which is broadest on the front rings, and a pale yellow stripe on the sides, the latter edged above with pale green; spiracles pinkish edged with black; a hump on the eleventh ring is purplish tinted. Head pale ochreous brown marked with reddish brown. Sometimes the general colour is yellowish or pinkish ochreous. May be found in June and July on maple (Acer campestris) and in confinement will feed very well on sycamore (A. pseudoplatanus). The moth usually emerges in May or June, but in 1901 Mr. Adkin reared ten moths, July 24 to 31, from eggs deposited in the spring of that year. The species does not seem to be a common one even abroad; its range extends through Central Europe to Italy and Sicily, and it is also found in Ussuri.
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| Pl. 30. |
| 1, 1a, 1b. | Pebble Prominent: egg, caterpillar and chrysalis. |
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| 2, 2a, 2b, 2c. | Iron Prominent: eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis and cocoon. |
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| 3, 3a. | Great Prominent: caterpillar and chrysalis. |
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| Pl. 31. |
| 1. | Iron Prominent. | 2. | Pebble Prominent. |
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| 3. | Three Humped Moth. | 4. | Large Dark Prominent. |
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| 5. Great Prominent. |
The Coxcomb Prominent (Lophopteryx camelina).
Probably the commonest of the true Prominents, and certainly the most variable. The early stages are figured on Plate [32], and two forms of the moth on Plate [33]. In its typical and southern form the fore wings are more or less pale reddish brown with a darker cloud on the inner marginal area; there are three dusky, or blackish, cross lines, but two of these are generally very indistinct, the third runs from the blackish "tooth" on the inner margin to the front edge of the wing, and is followed by a pale wavy band often outwardly bordered with dusky. Sometimes the fore wings are clouded with dark brown, and in the North of England a dark reddish form occurs. In Scotland the fore wings vary in colour from dusky brown through reddish to pale yellowish brown; sometimes the "tooth" is reddish in chestnut coloured specimens. The whitish eggs are laid on the undersides of the leaves of various trees and bushes upon which the caterpillar feeds; these are chiefly birch, oak, hazel, sallow, and beech.
The caterpillar, which appears in July to October, and sometimes even later, is green, with a darker line on the back, and a yellow one on the sides; two reddish tipped wart-like projections on the back of ring eleven. Occasionally the general colour is ochreous with a pinkish tinge, or it may be even purplish. There are two broods in the south of England, but only one in the north. The moths of the first brood fly in May and June, and those of the second in July and August, sometimes rather later. Pretty generally distributed throughout England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Abroad its range extends over Northern and Central Europe to Northern Spain, Northern and Central Italy, Dalmatia, Turkey, Armenia, Siberia, Amurland, Corea, and Japan.