This reddish shading is more or less absent in the type, which is otherwise less variegated than var. imbutata, the form to which our British specimens are almost entirely referable. (Plate [55], Figs. 9 and 10.)
The caterpillar is of somewhat stoutish build, and reddish brown in colour; three darker lines along the back, and yellow stripe low down along the sides, the latter edged above with black on the front three rings, and blotched with pinkish on the middle rings; the head is rather paler than the body, and the dots on the latter are yellow. It feeds on cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idæa) and cranberry (V. oxycoccos), and seems to have a preference for the flowers of these plants: April to June.
The moth is out in July and August among the Vaccinium in its swampy haunts on the heaths and moors of the north of England, and Scotland, even to the Shetlands. McArthur took a specimen in the Isle of Lewis in 1901. It also occurs in Ireland. In England it does not seem to have been noted south of Staffordshire.
The range abroad extends to Eastern Siberia and Amurland.
The Streak (Chesias spartiata).
The most striking features of this shining brownish coloured species are the oval-shaped marks on the disk of the fore wings, and the long whitish streak running to the tips of the wings. (Plate [57], Figs. 3 ♂, 4 ♀.)
The long caterpillar (Plate [56], Fig. 2) is deep green, with a darker line along the middle of the back, and whitish lines along the sides and the under surface; the spiracles are reddish, encircled with black, and the head is flecked with brown. It feeds in the spring on broom (Cytisus scoparius).
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