Two forms of the male of this species are represented on Plate [141]. Fig. 9 shows the yellow English form (ab. flavescens, White), and Fig. 10 the white North English and Scotch forms. In southern localities, however, specimens occur which are almost as white as the northern or even Scotch examples; I have two such specimens from Surrey. There is considerable variation in the size of area occupied by the pale colour, both in white and yellow forms. In one of the former, from Forres, in Scotland, the white is represented by a small oval spot and dappled streak on the fore wings; an entirely black specimen (ab. nigricarius, Backhaus) has been noted from Berkshire. In other specimens there is an unusually large proportion of pale colour. The females are usually orange, or orange yellow, in the south (Fig. 8); and yellowish brown, or dingy orange brown, in the north. The brownish-coloured females occasionally occur in the south, and the brighter form of this sex is sometimes taken in the Midlands, where the two forms of the species seem to overlap.
The long, greenish caterpillar is marked with whitish or yellow lines; those along the back are edged with black, and along the sides with dark green. It feeds from August to October on the needles of the pine, and also on other firs. (Plate [140], Fig. 3; Fig. 3a shows a photo of the chrysalis, twice natural size, by Mr. H. Main.) The moth is out in May and June, later in the north; it is generally common in pine woods throughout England, Wales, and Scotland.
Bordered Grey (Selidosema ericetaria).
Portraits of the male and female of this species (known also as plumaria) will be found on Plate [143], Figs. 1 ♂, 2 ♀. The cross markings are more distinct in some specimens than in others, and the central one of the fore wings varies in width.
The caterpillar (Plate [142], Fig. 3, from a photograph by Mr. H. Main) is grey, with a dark-brown or blackish irregular double line along the back, and pale lines along the sides, the lower one edged above with reddish brown; spiracles, black, as also are the dots on the back; the last ring ends in a point. (Adapted from Porritt.) It feeds on ling (Calluna), from September well on into the following spring.
The moth occurs on heaths and mosses in July and August, but it is local. On warm days the males are very active, but about dusk they are not difficult to capture. In southern England, the New Forest, Hants, appears to be its special home, but it is also found in other parts of that county, including the Isle of Wight, in Dorsetshire, and in Surrey; also noted from Berkshire. It is scarce in Cheshire, fairly common on the Witherslack mosses in North Lancashire, and at Ullswater in Cumberland. Except that it has been recorded from the Isle of Arran (1882), it does not seem to have been noted in Scotland. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and is abundant at Kinsale, co. Cork.
The V-moth (Thamnonoma (Itame) wauari).
The popular name of this species (Plate [143], Fig. 3) refers to the black discal mark on the more or less violet-tinged pale, greyish fore wings; but there is a good deal of variation in this character. Occasionally the wings are suffused with smoky (ab. vau-nigraria, Hatchett), or more rarely with blackish brown (ab. fuscaria, Thunberg).
On Plate [142] is a figure of the caterpillar, from a coloured drawing by Mr. A. Sich. The general colour is greenish, or some shade of brown; the lines on the back are white, and that low down along the sides is broad, and yellow; the raised dots are black with short bristles. It feeds in April, May, and June on the foliage of gooseberry and currant, and is especially fond of the tender shoots.