and occasionally this part of the band is finely cut off from both upper and lower portions. (Plate [68], Figs. 7, 8.)
The caterpillar is yellowish green, merging into pinkish on the sides; the pink is edged below with black, and this is followed by a dark olive stripe; rings 1-3 and 10-12 are wrinkled, whilst all the others are ridged across the back and along the sides. It feeds, in August and September, on the unripe seeds of meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum), also on T. minus, and, according to Barrett, on old withered leaves of columbine.
The moth is out in July, occasionally at the end of June, and occurs locally in "Fenland."
Doubleday introduced it as British in the Zoologist for 1848. He there states, "A single example of this pretty species was obtained last season near Peterborough, but I believe it was not in very good condition. A splendid female was sent to me from the same neighbourhood this week (July 15, 1848)."
In 1853 and 1854 the species was discovered in the fens of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire. Later it was found to inhabit the fens of Norfolk and Suffolk. It is still obtained in the Cambridge fens from Bottisham to Chatteris. Outside "Fenland" it has been recorded from Worcestershire (Bewdley Forest) and Warwickshire (Rugby).
The range abroad extends to Amurland.
Red-green Carpet (Cidaria siterata).
The general colour of the fore wings of this species (Plate [68], Figs. 1-4) is greyish green, with more or less of rosy suffusion; the basal patch and central band are darker green, and the latter is outwardly edged with whitish below the front margin, and towards the inner margin. The female has rather more ample wings, and is generally of a darker hue, but in both sexes the basal patch and central band are blackish; the hind
wings are dark greyish brown, inclining to blackish in some females, and there is a blackish central dot and two or three curved lines.
The long caterpillar is yellowish green, with an interrupted red line along the middle of the back; two green points on last ring are usually pink-tipped. It feeds on oak, birch, ash, sloe, apple, etc., in July and August.