The moth is out in June and July, sometimes earlier in the south. It is generally distributed, and, as a rule, common, in woodlands, lanes, etc., throughout the British Isles.
Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoë fluctuata).
Of this common frequenter of our gardens four examples are depicted on Plate [80]. Figs. 11 and 13 are the more frequent forms, but specimens with the central band complete, as in Fig. 12, are not uncommon. Chiefly, but by no means exclusively, in Southern localities, some examples have the ground colour almost pure white; often the wings are more or less suffused with dark grey (ab. neapolisata, Millière), and this is especially the case in Scotland, where, in Aberdeenshire and in Shetland, a blackish form, ab. thules, Prout, occurs. Fig. 14 represents a specimen of this form from Aberdeen. Somewhat rarely, the central band is only indicated by a small spot on the front area of the wing (ab. costovata, Haworth), and more often the band is much narrowed or otherwise modified in the direction of that aberration. Fig. 4, Plate [61], shows an extreme example of this form. Specimens vary in size from rather under one inch to one inch and a half in expanse.
2 Pl. 78.
1-5.
November Moth.
6-8.
Autumnal Moth.
9, 10.
Welsh Wave.
2 Pl. 79.
1, 1a.
Argent and Sable: eggs, natural size and enlarged, and caterpillar.
