The caterpillar is brownish, but varies in tint, in some cases inclining to pink; there are three lines along the back, the central one dark green or brown, and the others more or less yellowish; a blackish or dark grey line low down along the sides. It feeds on yellow bedstraw (Galium verum), and may be reared on other kinds of Galium. There are two broods, one in May and June, and the other in August and September.
The moth, which frequents sand-hills and shelving banks by the seaside, is found resting upon its food plant or other vegetation around, in May and June, and again in July and August.
The species has a wide distribution, and occurs in suitable localities around the coasts of England (except the north-east), and on the west coast of Wales. It also inhabits the Breck sand district of Norfolk and Suffolk, and has been found on chalk downs and hills in the south of England, and in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire. In Ireland, it has been recorded from the counties of Down and Kerry.
Abroad, its distribution spreads to Eastern Siberia and Amurland.
Drab Looper (Minoa murinata).
The grey brown or ochreous brown wings of this delicate, but unattractive little moth (Plate [55], Figs. 1 and 2), are silky in
texture. After it has flown for a time, the wings become paler, and lose most of their sheen.
The thick-set, roughish caterpillar is reddish brown, dotted with pale ochreous; there is a slender white line along the middle of the back, and black oblique streaks on the sides; a blackish wavy line along the area of the spiracles is bordered below with yellowish. It feeds on wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) and also, I have reason to believe, on petty spurge (E. peplus), a rather common weed in some gardens, from July to September. In forward seasons the moth, which flies in the sunshine, has been noted in late April, but May and June are the best months for it. In the New Forest, and elsewhere, it has occurred in August. On one occasion I remember that, in a garden at Brockenhurst, several specimens were taken in the autumn, and it was supposed that they resulted from eggs laid by a damaged female that had been captured in the woods and turned out into said garden. It has been taken at gas lamps, at Dorking among other places.
The species has been recorded from Pembrokeshire, Glamorganshire, and Monmouth, in South Wales; and it appears to be found in most of the counties of England southwards from Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Oxford, and Bucks. Except that it has been doubtfully recorded from Stowmarket, Suffolk, it does not seem to be found in the eastern counties; and I cannot find that it has been noted from Devon or Cornwall.
The range abroad extends to Amurland.