The moth is out from late May to July, and its habits are similar to those of the last species. In Scotland it appears to be commoner than in other parts of the British Isles, its range extending from Clydesdale to the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetland; but it has been recorded from Cumberland, and once from Durham. In Wales it has been taken at Dolgelly, in Merionethshire. Prout states that in 1902 he secured two specimens near Cwm Bychan, and that the species has since been captured regularly in the locality. It is widely distributed throughout Kerry and Galway, and also recorded from Cork and Derry, in Ireland.
The Barred Carpet (Perizoma tæniata).
This species is shown on Plate [85], Fig. 3. There are two forms of the central band of the fore wings, which in the type as figured by Stephens is broad, but is narrow in ab. arctaria, Herrich-Schaeffer = angustifasciata, Staud. The colour of the bands may be greyer or browner than in the specimen figured, and the ochreous general colour of the fore wings is more tinged with brown in some specimens than in others.
The rather bristly caterpillar is light brown with a pinkish tinge; the back is marked with browner diamonds and some black dots, and there is a yellow stripe along the sides. It feeds on moss (Hodgkinson, Entom. xxviii. 241) growing in damp places, hibernates when quite small, and reappears about April, when it seems to prefer the fruit of the moss, but will also thrive on chickweed. The moths appear from the end of June, and may be found, but in wasted condition, up to early September.
The species is extremely local, and in its secluded haunts may be found on the trunks of holly and yew trees, or it may
be disturbed from the branches of such trees, or from hedgerows, etc.
In Britain the species seems to have been first noted in Castle Eden Dene, Durham (1825), and subsequently in Cumberland (Flimby, near Maryport), Westmorland, Lancashire (Arnside and Silverdale), Yorkshire (Scarborough), Derbyshire (Dovedale), Arthog in North Wales, and Tintern in Monmouthshire. The only English locality for it south of Monmouth is Watersmeet, near Lynton, in North Devon. In Scotland, it has been noted from Rannoch and Pitlochrie, in Perthshire, and from Dalmallin, in Argyllshire. It has a wide distribution in Ireland, and is common in some parts of that country, as at Killarney, Co. Kerry, and Rockwood, in Sligo.
Abroad, the range extends to Amurland; it is represented in Japan by fulvida, Butler, and in North America by basaliata, Walker.
Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata).
This very common and generally distributed species is subject to a good deal of variation in the tint of ground colour, and also in the greater or lesser amount of black marking. On Plate [85] six specimens are shown; Figs. 4, 5 represent the more frequent form in most localities, but in many districts ab. infuscata, Gumppenberg (Fig. 6), is hardly less common; in some specimens the central band is entirely blackish, and occasionally the middle area of the band is partly or wholly whitish. Sometimes the wings are uniformly yellow without markings, but such aberrations are scarce, or have not been noted often. A small form occurring in the Hebrides and the Shetlands, var. atlantica, Staud., has the wings generally darkened; Figs. 7-9 depict three specimens from the Isle of Lewis. Portraits of two very local Irish forms will be found on Plate [61]; one is ab. hibernica, Prout (Fig. 5), and the other approaches the dark ab. isolata, Kane (Fig. 6).