darker green stripes and lines. In another form there are four pale yellowish lines along the back and a yellow stripe low down along the sides. It feeds on buckthorn (Rhamnus), the leaves of which it fastens together with silk, and so forms a retreat. It will also eat sloe and bird-cherry (Prunus padus).
The moth is out in August and through the autumn, when it sometimes visits the flowers of ivy, ragwort, etc.; after hibernation it is again seen, perhaps even more frequently, in April and May, and is then occasionally found at sallow catkins. The species seems to have been noted from nearly all the English counties, but becomes rare from Yorkshire northwards. In Wales, and in Ireland, it is apparently widely distributed, but in Scotland it seems confined to southern localities, and is only rarely met with.
Abroad, the distribution spreads to Amurland, China, and Japan.
The Scarce Tissue (Eucosmia (Calocalpe) certata).
This species is very similar to the last, but the wings are not glossy, only reddish on the outer margin, and the black marked lines edging the central band of the fore wings are less irregular, the inner ones usually being much straighter. On the under side of the hind wings of the male is a fold enclosing hairs; this is on the inner margin, just above the anal angle. (Plate [60], Fig. 3 ♀.)
The thickset caterpillar (Plate [62], Fig. 3, after Hofmann) is greyish inclining to greenish; four white lines along the back, the central pair enclosing a dark line, the others are bordered below with dark greyish; the black spiracles are set in yellowish blotches, and the plates on first and last rings are brown; head, reddish-brown, glossy (adapted from Fenn). It feeds on the barberry (Berberis vulgaris) and the holly-leaved barberry (B. aquifolium) grown in gardens, in June and July. The moth
is out in May and June, but in favourable seasons has appeared in late April. When on the wing at night it is freely attracted by light, but otherwise not often noticed. The species has occurred in many of the English counties from Devon to Durham, but it seems to be only common in the eastern counties, and most frequent perhaps in Suffolk. It has been recorded from South Wales, but is seemingly absent from Ireland.
The range abroad extends to Amurland.
The Scallop Shell (Eucosmia undulata).
Wings pale greyish, sometimes ochreous tinted, and crossed by numerous dark-grey wavy lines inclining to blackish on the front margin of the fore wings; the waves of the central pair of lines on the fore wings often meet and so form a series of rings; sometimes the space between the eighth and twelfth lines is of a dusky hue, and occasionally it is distinctly darker and band-like; the outer margin of all the wings is brownish and traversed by a wavy white line. The male has tufts of blackish hair in a fold on the inner margin of the hind wing, this is noticeable on the upper side, but is best seen from the under side. (Plate [60], Figs. 4 ♂, 5 ♀.)