The species is generally distributed, and often common, over the greater part of England and Wales, but somewhat local north of the Midlands and through Scotland to Aberdeen; widely spread in Ireland.
Flame Carpet (Coremia (Ochyria) designata).
The ground colour of this rather common woodland species (Plate [75], Figs. 4-6) is pale grey, varying to whitish, or sometimes faintly brownish tinged. The purple band on the fore wings is always broadly edged in front with black, but the black outer edging is irregular, and sometimes only distinct towards the front margin of the wings; it varies in width, and in tint, being, in some specimens, faint purplish grey.
The caterpillar is ochreous, inclining to greyish on the back, which is marked with whitish lines on the front rings, and with ochreous diamonds and black dots on the other rings; there is also a row of black spots low down along the sides; head,
brownish, freckled with black. It feeds, in June and July, probably, in a wild state, on some kind of "cress," growing in the moister parts of woods; in confinement, it will eat cabbage, horseradish, and wallflower, among other kinds of Cruciferæ. There is a second brood in August and September. (Plate [74], Fig. 3, after Hofmann.)
The moth is out in May and June, and again in August. It is fond of resting on tree-trunks in woods, especially where the ground is moist, but it may also be beaten out of hedges and bushes. It is most plentiful in the southern half of England, but is spread over the greater part of the British Isles, including the Orkneys.
Abroad, its range extends to Eastern Siberia, Amurland, Japan, and North America.
The Beech-Green Carpet (Amoebe olivata).
The species, depicted on Plate [75], Figs. 9, 10, when quite fresh has the fore wings greenish, and the central band more or less tinged with brown, in some specimens with blackish; the inner edge of the band is not so clearly defined as the outer, the latter being followed by a narrow whitish wavy band; a series of black dots edged with white represent the submarginal line. Hind wrings, smoky grey, with a pale band beyond the middle, and a pale line nearer the outer margin.
The roughened caterpillar (Plate [73], Fig. 1) is ochreous brown, mottled with darker brown, and lined with grey; the raised dots are black, each with a short bristle. It feeds at night on bedstraw (Galium), in the spring to May, after hibernation.