The Dotted Carpet (Cleora jubata).
This species (Plate [136], Figs. 3, 4) has long been known as glabraria, Hübner, but as authorities are agreed that jubata, Thunberg, is an earlier name, it must be adopted. The general colour is whitish, powdered with dark grey and black; there are four black spots on the front margin and from these blackish markings cross the wings, but only the first line is generally distinct, although a second line, beyond the large black discal spot, is sometimes clearly defined and entire; occasionally a central shade and a submarginal line are both in evidence. The hind wings have a black central spot and a blackish line beyond, but the latter is often absent. Exceptional aberration takes the form of leaden black blotches, clouds, and streaks on the fore wings, and dusky clouding on the hind wings, chiefly on the basal area.
The caterpillar is of a faint bluish green, inclining to greenish white on the back; a row of black spots along the back, and a broken black narrow stripe along each side. It feeds on tree lichens (Usnea barbata), etc., from September to June or July. Three figures of this caterpillar are given on Plate [133], Fig. 3.
The moth is out in July and August, and may be found at rest on tree trunks now and then, but is more frequently obtained by jarring the lichen-clad branches of oak. Although it is known to occur very locally and somewhat rarely in the counties of Wilts., Dorset, and Devon, the New Forest in Hampshire is the English district where one is most likely to meet with this species. It has been recorded from Cornwall (Falmouth district, 1904), Hereford, Pembrokeshire, Carnarvonshire (Beddgelert), and Cumberland. Charlton Forest, Sussex, has also been mentioned. In Scotland, Renton states that it is generally common in Roxburghshire; it occurs in several of the woods in Clydesdale, and has been noted from Argyllshire.
The Engrailed (Tephrosia bistortata).
In the following brief remarks on T. bistortata, Goeze (= biundularia, Borkhausen), I have included reference to crepuscularia, Hübner (= biundularia, Esper). The former (which is also named abietaria, Haworth, and laricaria, Doubleday) appears on the wing in March and April, and there is a second flight in July and August. Moths of the second generation are few in number and small in size, and are referable to abs. consonaria and strigularia, Stephens. A third generation of still smaller moths has been reared. Crepuscularia is out in May and June, rarely in April; its caterpillar feeds in June and July or later; according to Barrett, a second generation of the moth has occurred in August. One or two moths have been captured in September or October, but whether these were referable to bistortata or crepuscularia is not quite clear.
Fig. 19.
Small Engrailed, at rest.