The caterpillar is yellowish-green, with three dark-green double lines on the back, the central one blotched with purplish brown on the last ring; head, green, marked with purplish brown. The figure (Plate [105], Fig. 2) is from a drawing in colour by Mr. Sich. It feeds on sallow, willow, and aspen, and may be found almost throughout the summer from June. The moth is also met with during the summer months, but seems to be most frequent in May and June. The species prefers moist localities where sallows abound, and in such places seems to occur pretty generally over the British Isles. In Scotland, however, it has not, apparently, been noted north of Moray.
The range abroad extends to Amurland and Japan.
The Scorched Carpet (Ligdia adustata).
The bluish-grey band on the outer third of the fore wings varies in width, and the velvety black marking thereon varies in amount; this area of the wings is also more or less clouded with reddish brown, and the underside of all the wings is much suffused with reddish brown, which gives the insect the burnt or scorched appearance to which both Latin and English names refer. (Plate [107], Figs. 4 ♂ and 5 ♀.) In June and early July, and again in late August and September, the red-spotted, bright-green caterpillar may be beaten from the spindle bushes (Euonymus europæus) in hedgerows. (Fig. 1, Plate [105], is from a coloured drawing by Mr. Sich.)
The moth is out in late April sometimes, but it is more frequent in May and June, and as a second generation in August, earlier or later in some seasons. It may be knocked out of hedges in which spindle is growing. The species is not uncommon in most of the southern English counties, but in the northern ones its occurrence is more casual. It has been recorded from North Wales; in Ireland it is fairly common in some western and southern counties, and rare in the east and north; in Scotland, only noted from the south-east, Arran, and the Hebrides.
Abroad, its range extends to Japan, where it is represented by var. japoniata, Staudinger.
The Sloe Carpet (Aleucis (Bapta) pictaria).
This blackish-grey species (Plate [107], Fig. 6) has been confused in the past with pictaria, Thunberg, which is referable to Cleora lichenaria, and it was then known by the popular name of "The Grey Carpet." As the caterpillar feeds on the foliage of the sloe, and the moth is fond of resting on the stems and twigs, and appears at the time the bushes are wreathed in their snowy blossoms, the sloe carpet seems to be rather more suitable than are most of the names by which our moths are popularly known.
The caterpillar is dusky brown, with blackish V-shaped marks upon the back, white marks on rings 7 and 8, and a black line on the last ring. It feeds at night, in June and early July, and as it remains on the bushes during the day, it may be obtained by beating. At night the moths fly about the bushes for a short time, and then sit on the twigs, when they may be secured. Of course, a lantern will be a necessity.