Garden Carpet at rest.
(Photo by H. Main.)
The caterpillar varies in colour from dark grey through yellowish green to obscure green, but the underside is always paler; on the back there is a series of pale blotches, and some black spots on the middle rings; the head is rather paler than the general colour, and marked with black. It feeds, at night, on cabbage, horseradish, wallflower, white arabis, and many other kinds of Cruciferæ; and it is said to eat the foliage of gooseberry and currant. June—October.
There are certainly two broods, and possibly more, as the moths occur in greater or lesser numbers throughout the year, from late April to October, but it seems to be most plentiful in May and June, and in August and September.
Generally distributed over the British Isles. It is also an inhabitant of North America.
The Galium Carpet (Xanthorhoë galiata).
The more usual forms of this species are represented on Plate [81], Figs. 1, 2. Fig. 3 is the portrait of a form occurring in Yorkshire, Sussex, and probably elsewhere, in which the central band is blackish and solid-looking; this seems to be referable to unilobata, Haworth. Besides varying in tint of ground colour, and in the amount of freckling or mottling, there is modification in the width of the central band.
The caterpillar is brown, dotted with black, and striped with blackish brown on the back, and with pale brown on the sides; the head is light brown, sprinkled with black, and marked with
a dark V. It feeds on bedstraw in late June and July, and there is a second brood in August and September. The figure of the caterpillar on Plate [79], Fig. 3, is from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich.
The moth is out in June, sometimes later in the north and earlier in the south, where it occurs as a second generation in August. It is chiefly found in chalk and limestone districts, and may be easily put up from the herbage among which it secretes itself during the day. In the seaboard counties of England, from Kent to Cornwall, it is especially common on the coast, but is also to be met with in suitable inland localities in these counties, and also in Surrey, Middlesex, Herts, Bucks., and Oxford. It is always rare on the eastern side, but on the west, including Wales, it is more or less frequent from Somerset and Wilts. to Westmorland. Not uncommon in Yorkshire, principally in the West Riding, and an odd specimen has been recorded from Durham. Somewhat rare in Scotland, but it has been noted in Berwick, Wigtown, Arran, Clydesdale, and Perthshire. In Ireland it is local, although often plentiful on the coast.