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The eggs, which are laid loosely, are yellowish or pale straw colour (Plate [84], Fig. 3a). Caterpillar, stoutish, green inclining to yellowish; three lines on the back, the central one dark green, and the others yellowish, as also are the ring divisions; a pale wavy line low down along the sides. In some examples the general colour is pale greyish-brown, inclining to reddish brown. It feeds on grass, dock, chickweed, and various low-growing plants, from August to May, and is often abundant in hay meadows (Fig. 3, Plate [84], is from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich). The moth occurs throughout the summer, and is very plentiful (often a pest) in almost every hedgerow and most bushy places.
July Highflyer (Hydriomena furcata).
Some idea of the variable character of this species (sordidata, Fab., and elutata, Hübner) may be formed from the selection of half a dozen examples shown on Plate [86]. The typical form has the fore wings greyish, with dark bands as in Fig. 1, and a modification without the dark bands seems to be ab. cinereata, Prout. In the form sordidata, Fabricius, the general colour of the fore wings is greenish, and the bands are dark; ab. obliterata, Prout, is of the same colour, but the bands are absent. Ab. fusco-undata, Donovan, has the general colour reddish, with dark bands; without dark bands it becomes testaceata, Prout. Blackish or sooty forms are referable to infuscata, Staud. (Fig. 4). Frequently in the green forms, and less often in the reddish, there is a broad whitish central stripe, and a narrow one on the basal area; in the green form again the basal and central areas are occasionally crossed by red bands, and this is one of the prettiest forms of the species and, so far as I know, occurs only in the large sallow-feeding race;
it possibly represents ab. fusco-undata, which is most frequent in the smaller moorland race.
The egg (Plate [87], Fig. 1b) when figured, February 8, 1908, was whitish as regards the shell, but the interior was dark greenish. In April the caterpillar appeared to be formed, but it did not leave the shell until early in May.