Water Carpet (Lampropteryx suffumata).
The fore wings are whitish, more or less clouded with brownish, with dark brown, inclining to blackish, basal patch and central band. The variation tends in two opposite directions; in the one the general colour is so clouded and suffused with blackish-brown, that the entire fore wings become almost entirely of that colour (ab. piceata, Stephens), N. England and Scotland; the other extreme is ab. porrittii, Robson, in which the central band and basal patch are black, and the white ground colour is almost free of brown clouding; the last named occurs at Dover
in Kent, and Huddersfield, Yorks. On Plate [72], Fig. 1 shows the typical form, Fig. 3 ab. piceata, and 2 ab. porrittii. The caterpillar varies from greyish, with pinkish or greenish tinge, to ochreous brown; the upper surface is rather darker than the under, and there is a series of dark V-shaped marks and arrow-heads on the back of rings 4-8; there is a whitish central stripe on 1-3, and a dark one on 9-12; head, brownish, marked with black. It feeds on goose-grass (Galium aparine), and other kinds of bedstraw, in May and early June. It seems to thrive best, however, on the goose-grass. (Plate [74], Fig. 1, after Hofmann.)
The moth may be found in weedy lanes and along hedgerows, pretty well throughout England, Wales, Scotland to Moray, and Ireland. It cannot, however, be said to occur in all suitable places, as although it may be found in some plenty in one lane or hedgerow in a district, it may be quite absent in similar spots just around. Wherever it is noted one year it may be almost certainly obtained there in subsequent years. April and May are the months in which it is usually seen, but it has been taken in June in late seasons, and occasionally in July.
Large Twin-spot Carpet (Coremia (Ochyria) quadrifasciaria).
The ground colour of the fore wings of this species is most often of a pale reddish brown, but sometimes it inclines to grey brown; the outwardly angled central band is often black, but more frequently perhaps the middle area is pretty much of the ground colour or greyish, with a black dot in the upper portion, and limited by two black lines which approach, or join, in the lower half. A dusky basal blotch is not always present, but it is sometimes well in evidence, as also is a dusky shade before the whitish submarginal line; frequently there are two blackish
or brownish dots on the upper part of this line, and a third dot above them, but nearer the outer margin. (Plate [72], Figs. 4, 5.)
The caterpillar is pale yellowish brown, finely freckled with grey, and with greyish V-shaped marks on the back; three greyish lines along the back, the central one broken, and the others most distinct at each end. It feeds on bedstraw (Galium) and other plants, such as primrose, groundsel, etc., from August to April. The moth is out in June and July, and should be looked for on tree-trunks growing around the borders of woods or in lanes near by. It may also be beaten out of hedgerows in the vicinity of woods.
A very local species and only found with us in the southern half of England. Its chief haunts appear to be in the counties of Kent, Surrey, Hants, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Norfolk (the Breck sand district); thence its range extends through Hertford, Buckingham, and Berkshire to Gloucester, where, however, it is scarce, as it is also in Lincoln. Abroad, the range extends to Eastern Siberia, Amurland, Corea and Japan.