It is widely distributed, and often common in places, throughout Scotland. In Ireland it is local, but has occurred plentifully in some of its haunts in that country; Kane states that var. subhastata has not been noted.
The range abroad spreads to Amurland, China, Iceland, Labrador, and North America.
Beautiful Carpet (Mesoleuca albicillata).
The English name of this species (Plate [82], Fig. 13) is exceedingly appropriate; few of our native moths exhibit such a pleasing combination of colour and marking. It varies but very little in a general way, but a specimen taken in York some years ago has the fore wings dark leaden grey instead of creamy white (ab. suffusa, Carrington), and very rarely the ground colour inclines to yellow.
The stoutish caterpillar (Plate [76], Fig. 2) is green with reddish marks along the back; a white line low down along the sides is edged below with purplish red on the first three rings; the last ring, and the claspers, tinged with purplish red. It feeds
at night on bramble and raspberry, in August and September, occasionally earlier or later. In the daytime it rests on the underside of a leaf. When full grown it forms a cocoon just under the surface of the soil, or among rubbish (in the cage), and therein changes to a dark reddish-brown chrysalis (Plate [76], Fig. 2a).
The moth is out in June, sometimes in late May, and occasionally there seems to be a few individuals about in August. The species is a denizen of the woodlands, and is generally to be found in the more open parts of woods where its food plants are well established. It is widely distributed over England and Wales, but most frequent in the south of the former country. In Scotland, it is local in Roxburghshire and Wigtownshire; and it occurs in many parts of Ireland. The range abroad extends to Amurland and Japan.
The Purple Bar (Mesoleuca ocellata).
The whitish fore wings of this species (Plate [82], Fig. 12) are often tinged with pale ochreous brown on the lower two-thirds of the outer marginal area, and this tint sometimes invades the central portion of the bluish-black central band. Rarely the ground colour is almost entirely white, and the central band is very slender (ab. coarctata, Prout), and perhaps rather more frequently the band is completely severed below the middle.
The caterpillar, which feeds at night on bedstraw (Galium mollugo and G. verum), is pale ochreous brown, or pale pinkish brown, netted with darker brown; on the back are a reddish ochreous central line, and some reddish edged pale V-marks: June and July, and sometimes again in the autumn.