Willow Beauty (Boarmia gemmaria).
The two portraits on Plate [130] represent the best known forms of this species. Stephens in 1831 referred the smoky or dark slaty grey form (Fig. 6), which is the ordinary one in the London district, now as then, to rhomboidaria. Newman subsequently named this form perfumaria, and he, and other entomologists of the time, considered it as a species distinct from gemmaria = rhomboidaria. We now know that the smoky grey specimens are not peculiar to the metropolitan area, but occur in other parts of England (Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc.), and are found, with the type, at Howth and other localities in Ireland. The more general forms throughout England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland up to Perthshire, are pale brown, or greyish brown (typical), sometimes ochreous tinged (Fig. 5); the latter is referable to ab. consobrinaria, Haworth. Black forms have been recorded from Norwich in Norfolk, and blackish specimens have been noted from Ashdown Forest, Sussex; from Cannock Chase, Staffordshire; and from the south of Scotland.
The eggs (Plate [131], Fig. 1a) are green at first, changing to pink mottled with green, and finally to dark grey; the latter change indicates early hatching of the caterpillar, which usually occurs about a fortnight after the eggs are deposited.
The caterpillar (Plate [131], Fig. 1, after a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich) is dull reddish brown, mottled more or less with ochreous; traces of diamond-shaped marks on the back, the latter sometimes well defined. It feeds on ivy (in London gardens especially), hawthorn, birch, privet, lilac, rose, clematis, broom, and many other shrubs, and also on yew and fir, in August, and after hibernation in the spring. The moth is out in July and August; sometimes a second brood occurs in September.
This species is the gemmaria of Brahm (1791), but rhomboidaria, Schiffermüller (1776), although only a catalogue name until figured by Hübner, about 1797, is adopted by some authors.
Satin Carpet (Boarmia abietaria).
As an inhabitant of Britain this species was first noted from Hampshire, and in 1825 was figured and described by Curtis as Alcis sericearia. Two specimens of this form, from the New Forest, are depicted on Plate [132], Figs. 1, 2; but paler, and also darker, examples are found in this locality, and, occasionally, melanic specimens occur as well. The latter form, some examples of which might be described as sooty black with black veins, is more prevalent among the yews and firs of Surrey.
The caterpillar, for the example of which (and also the egg), figured on Plate [138], Figs. 1, 1a, I am obliged to Mr. Arthur J. Scollick, is, in one form, ochreous brown with paler cream-coloured patches on the back; and in another dark grey-brown with paler patches, sometimes of a light cinnamon brown; a pale, thin line along the middle of the back runs through a series of brownish diamonds; there are other pale lines on the back and sides, and these are edged with brownish, and partly with blackish; spiracles outlined in black. (Adapted from Buckler.) It feeds on spruce, pine, yew, oak, birch, sallow, etc., from August to June. A larva has been found on bilberry in Devon.
The moth is out from late June to early August, but captured specimens are not often suitable for the cabinet, they are generally more or less frayed or scarred.