In July and August, the moth may sometimes be seen resting on fences, but it is more frequently hidden away among herbage. At night it will visit flowers, especially those of the ragwort.
The species is widely distributed over England and Wales, and in Scotland up to Moray. In Ireland, it is found on the coast from Louth to Cork.
By some entomologists, subfulvata, Haworth, and its variety, oxydata, are set down as forms of the preceding species.
Shaded Pug (Eupithecia scabiosata).
The grey, or greyish-brown lined, whitish species shown on Plate [97], Fig. 14, has been known by three names in Britain. It was named and described by Stephens, in 1831, as piperata (The Speckled Pug), from a specimen, or specimens, taken at Riddlesdown, near Croydon, Surrey; later, it was supposed to be the subumbrata, of the Vienna Catalogue (1776), and certainly of Guenée. The name given to it by Borkhausen, in 1794, appears to be the correct one, and is here adopted.
Crewe describes the caterpillar as yellowish green, with three dark lines on the back, the outer one not clearly defined; a yellow line on each side of the head, and of the last ring of the body.
It feeds on flowers of one of the hawkbits (Leontodon hispidus), and hawk's-beard (Crepis taraxacifolia), etc., from July to September. In June and early July, the moth may be started up from the herbage, as the collector walks over rough ground inland, or more frequently on the coast. It also occurs in fens, marshy places in woods, etc.
The species occurs in Bucks., Berks., Surrey, and in the seaboard counties from Norfolk in the east to Gloucestershire in the west, also in South Wales; in the north it is found in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland. It is not common in Scotland, but has been reported from various parts, extending from Wigtown to Argyll and Aberdeen. In Ireland it is also a coast insect, from Donegal to Cork.