hatches from the egg early in August, and after feeding for a while, retires to winter quarters, selecting some sheltered cranny, such as a chink in the tree bark, where it spins over itself a few strands of silk. Feeding is resumed in May and June, after hibernation, usually on the upperside of leaves of sloe and whitethorn, and also of fruit trees, such as apple and plum, and sometimes pear (Plate [72]).
The moth is out in June and July. It flies at dusk.
Widely distributed and generally common in the south of England; somewhat rare in Scotland—perhaps overlooked. It has been reported from Ireland, but is not mentioned by Kane in his catalogue of Irish Lepidoptera.
The Small Black Arches (Nola strigula).
Fore wings greyish white, freckled and dusted with grey brown at the base and on the front and outer margins; two black wavy and toothed cross lines; between the base of the wing and the second line are three raised tufts of grey brown tipped whitish scales: hind wings dark grey, paler towards the base (Plate [73]).
The caterpillar feeds, probably after hibernation, from April to June, on the undersides of oak leaves. It is pale ochreous in colour, with pale reddish brown warts and star-like tufts of hair; a blackish bar on the back of ring six; head blackish.
The moth emerges from the chrysalis in July. It occurs in oak woods in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Somerset and Gloucestershire; also in Berks, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, but it is very local and seems to be restricted to a more or less limited area in all its known haunts, among which the most favoured are perhaps the New Forest in Hampshire and Abbots Wood in Sussex. In some years it may be fairly common, or even plentiful, and then becomes quite scarce during several seasons in the same place.
The Least Black Arches (Nola confusalis).
Very similar to the last species, but whiter; the first line is curved towards the second tuft of raised scales, thence gently curved to the inner margin, above which there is a slight inward angle or elbow; the second line is less wavy; hind wings whitish grey with a black central dot, and in the male whiter along the inner area. The head and palpi of this species are white, but strigula has a greyish white head and dark palpi. Again, the antennæ in the male of the present species are ciliated, but in male strigula they are bipectinated (Plate [73]).