The somewhat dumpy caterpillar is reddish-brown with four yellowish lines along the back; a greyish stripe along the sides, and a creamy stripe along the black spiracles; head, pale brown and glossy. It feeds on sallow, aspen, and bilberry, and may be found from August throughout the autumn in spun-together leaves at the tips of the shoots. (Plate [62], Fig. 2.)
The moth is out in June and July, and occurs in woods where there is a good growth of bilberry, or in marshy spots where sallow bushes abound.
In England the species is widely distributed over the southern and eastern counties; its range extends through the Midlands to Cheshire, Lancs., and Westmorland, rarely in Lincoln and Yorks., and once recorded in Durham; it occurs in Wales and in Scotland, but only in the more southern part of each country. It is not plentiful in Ireland, but widely distributed. The range abroad includes Amurland.
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| 2 Pl. 60. |
| 1, 2. | The Tissue. | 3. | Scarce Tissue. | 4, 5. | The Scallop Shell. |
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| 6. | The Brown Scallop. | 7, 8. | The Dark Umber. |
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| 2 Pl. 61. |
| 1. | Netted Carpet. | 2. | Speckled Yellow, var. |
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| 3. | Dotted Border Wave (ab. circellata). | 4. | Garden Carpet (ab. costovata). |
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| 5, 6. | Yellow Shell, aberrant forms. | 7. | Tawny-barred Angle (ab. nigrofulvata). |
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| 8, 9. Broken-barred Carpet, Scottish form. |
The Brown Scallop (Scotosia vetulata).
The male is always smaller than the female, and is noticeable for its long body with tuft of hairs at the extremity. The wings in both sexes are dingy brown, or greyish brown, and the usual lines on fore wings are blackish, the space between first and second often dusky. (Plate [60], Fig. 6.)