Two specimens are shown on Plate [99]: Fig. 6 represents a more or less typical example from the Surrey downs, and Fig. 7 a pale form from Forres in Scotland. The species varies in tint of ground colour, and in the strength of marking, in all its localities; but in Scotland there is a greater tendency to pale forms than in England. Mr. H. McArthur, during the present year, obtained an extensive and most variable series from heather, at Aviemore, in Inverness. A pale-brownish tinged white pug found in Kent and the Isle of Wight, at one time referred to E. ultimaria, Boisduval, and afterwards known as stevensata, Webb, is really, according to Prout, anglicata, Herrich-Schaeffer. Whether this is a form of the present species or specifically distinct is still left in doubt, but personally I believe it to be a variety.
The dark-green, sometimes reddish marked, caterpillars may be beaten from juniper bushes, from April to early June. The moth is out from late July to early October, and may be found
in nearly all parts of the British Isles where the food plant occurs, and occasionally in localities from which juniper appears to be absent.
Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis (Eupithecia) pumilata).
Fig. 5.
Double-striped Pug, at rest.
(Photo by W. J. Lucas.)
This species varies a good deal in the tint of the ground colour and the cross markings. Three forms are depicted on Plate [99]: Fig. 8 is a typical male, and Fig. 9 shows a female with distinct red bands (ab. rufifasciata, Haworth); both specimens are from Surrey. The greyish example without red markings (Fig. 10) is from Ireland, and approaches ab. tempestivata, Zeller, in form.
The caterpillar ranges in colour from yellowish-green to reddish; on the back there is a dark-green or blackish line, and often a series of marks of the same colour; the lines on the sides are yellowish. It feeds chiefly in or on the flowers of furze, broom, holly, clematis, hawthorn, etc., from May to September. There are certainly two broods, possibly more. The specimens of the first, or spring, generation are usually larger in size and more strongly marked than those of the summer brood.