Wormwood Pug (Eupithecia absinthiata).
The fore wings are reddish or purplish brown; cross lines indistinct, but represented on the front edge by black marks; discal dot black, submarginal line whitish interrupted, often indistinct, except above the inner margin (Plate [95], Figs. 3, 6, 10). The short, stout, and roughened caterpillar varies in colour, and may be yellowish green, deep rose colour, or dirty reddish brown; a series of lozenge-shaped reddish spots on the back, faint towards each end (often absent in green forms); oblique yellow stripes on the sides form borders to the marks on the back (adapted from Crewe). It feeds, in the autumn, on the flowers of ragwort, golden rod, aster, yarrow, hemp agrimony, etc. The moth is out in June and July.
The species is generally common in the south of England, and is widely distributed over the rest of that country, Wales, and Ireland. In Scotland its range extends to Moray.
Abroad, the distribution spreads to Amurland.
Ling Pug (Eupithecia goossensiata).
The fore wings are rather narrower and more pointed at the tips than those of the last species; the ground colour of the fore wings is of a paler reddish brown, and frequently tinged
with greyish; the hind wings are usually greyish-brown (Plate [95], Figs. 2, 12). The caterpillar, which feeds in August and September on the flowers of heath (Erica), and ling (Calluna), is pinkish with dusky marks on the back, most distinct on the middle rings; a yellowish line low down along the side has dusky marks upon it; head, dusky olive, marked with white (adapted from Crewe).
It may be mentioned here, that knautiata, Gregson, which was described as a distinct species, is by some authorities considered to be a form of this species, whilst others refer it to absinthiata. The caterpillar is stouter than that of goossensiata, varies in colour from whitish to green, and even purplish-brown, but not to pinkish; it feeds on the flowers and seeds of Knautia arvensis. The moth is out in June and July, and occurs on heaths and moors throughout England, Wales, and Ireland. In Scotland, it is obtained freely in some parts of the south, and its range extends to the Orkneys.
This species is the minutata of Guenée and other authors, but this name, being a synonym of absinthiata, will have to be discarded in favour of goossensiata, Mabille (1869).