Grey Scalloped Bar (Scodiona fagaria).
In its typical form this species (also known as belgiaria, Hübner) is grey, more or less tinged with ochreous, speckled with brownish grey, and crossed by black-marked brownish-grey lines. The bulk of British specimens, especially those from southern localities, are whitish grey, thinly sprinkled with darker grey scales in the male, and sometimes heavily powdered in the female; a pair are figured on Plate [144], 1 ♂, 2 ♀. The whiter form of the male, occurring in Britain chiefly in the New Forest, Hampshire, has been named albidaria, Staudinger.
The roughened caterpillar is figured on Plate [142] (photo by H. Main). In general colour it is dingy brown, with a whitish stripe along the back and some greyish marking on the sides. It feeds on ling and heath; growing slowly in the late summer, but more quickly in the spring, after hibernation, when it may be obtained at night from the tips of the heather twigs, either by searching or by means of the sweeping net. The moth is out in June and July in the south, and later in the north. It is found on moist heaths, moors, and mosses; when resting on the dark-coloured earth it so closely resembles a stone that it is probably frequently passed unnoticed.
The species is apparently more plentiful in the New Forest than in its other known southern localities (Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Sussex, and Dorset). Its range northwards in England
extends from Worcestershire (Malvern, rare) to Cumberland and Northumberland. It seems to be distributed over the greater part of Scotland, including the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In Wales it has been recorded from Flint, Denbigh, and Carnarvon; and it is widely spread over Ireland, occurring chiefly on the bogs.
Black-veined Moth (Scoria lineata).
This slightly ochreous tinged silky white moth has the veins of the wings blackish, and this is especially noticeable on the underside of the fore wings. A male specimen is shown on Plate [144], Fig. 3; the wings of the female are slightly smaller, and the body is stouter and shorter. This species is the dealbata of Linnæus, but lineata, Scopoli, is older by four years. The long caterpillar is greyish inclining to ochreous or brownish; several irregular darker lines on the back and sides. It feeds, in confinement, on knot-grass, dock, bird's-foot trefoil, etc., but in the open is said to eat wood grasses, such as Brachypodium, upon the blades of which the female moth has been seen to deposit eggs: July to May. The moth is out from late May through June; it flies in the sunshine, or rests among long grass, etc., from which it is readily disturbed. Its chief British haunts are in Kent (Higham, Wye, etc.); but it has been recorded from Sussex, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucester, and Herefordshire, chiefly in single specimens.
Abroad, the range extends to Amurland.
Straw Belle (Aspilates gilvaria).
This straw-coloured species (Plate [144], Fig. 4 ♂, 6 ♀) will be easily recognised by the brownish stripe on the fore wings, which extends from the front margin, near the tip, almost to the inner