From a number of cocoons collected in a Yorkshire locality for loniceræ, I reared, in 1907, a good many examples of that species, and also about a dozen six-spot specimens, which agree in colour with filipendulæ, but they have the vein-interrupted sixth spot and broad border to hind wings, as in hippocrepidis.
The caterpillar (Plate [145], Fig. 4) is greenish, with black markings and some yellow spots, the latter chiefly on the hind edges of the rings. It feeds in the autumn and after hibernation, on trefoils, clover, bird's-foot (Ornithopus), and kidney-vetch (Anthyllis), completing growth in the spring.
The moth flies on sunny days in July and August, on chalk downs, etc., inland, and on cliffs and sand hills on the coast, also in marshes; but, as previously stated, it also occurs locally in meadows in May and June.
Scarce Forester (Ino (Rhagades) globulariæ).
Of the three species occurring in Britain this is slightly the larger, at least in the male. The fore wings are green, sometimes with a slightly golden sheen; fringes, greyish. The male is best distinguished from statices by its more slender body, and by the pectinated and rather pointed antennæ. The female is a good deal smaller than the male; the antennæ are simple, and somewhat thread-like, compared with those of the females of statices and geryon. (Plate [147], Figs. 6 ♂, 7 ♀.)
The caterpillar is green, with the raised spots inclining to bluish; two yellowish-white lines along the back, and a dark green stripe along the sides; head and plate on first ring of the body, black. It lives on knapweeds (Centaurea nigra and C. scabiosa), feeding on the leaves much in the same manner as the caterpillar of the next two species.
The moth is out in June and July; it is partial to blossoms of salad burnet (Poterium sanguisorba), and only flies in the sunshine. The late Mr. J. Jenner Weir, who found the species commonly on the downs near Lewes, Sussex, was the first entomologist to record it as British. The best known localities in Sussex are Hollingbury Vale and Cliffe Hill, but it also occurs at the Devil's Dyke near Brighton. In Kent it is found on the downs behind Folkestone and Shorncliffe Camp.
The Forester (Ino (Adscita) statices).
In its most frequent form in Britain, this species is bronzy green (ab. viridis, Tutt); the typical bluish green type is much less frequent. The female is smaller than the male, but the difference in size is hardly ever so marked as in the sexes of globulariæ. The antennæ of the male are pectinated, but the tips are thickened. (Plate [147], Figs. 8 ♂, 9 ♀.)