The species occurs in the south and east of England, and through the north-west counties to Cheshire. It has been recorded from Cardiff, South Wales, and doubtfully from Ireland.
Abroad, the range extends to Corea and Japan. In America it seems to be established in parts of the State of New York.
The Reed Leopard (Phragmatæcia castaneæ).
A male of this species (Macrogaster arundinis of some authors) is shown on Plate [153], Fig. 3. The female is rather larger, with longer body, and the antennæ are without pectinations.
The wrinkled and rather shining caterpillar is ochreous white with reddish-brown stripes along the back. It feeds low down on the stems of reed (Phragmites communis) and is full grown in the spring of the second year following that in which it left the egg in late summer. Thus, a caterpillar hatching in August, 1908, would be mature about May, 1910, pupate in that month, or the next, and the perfect insect would appear in June or July.
The moth flies at night, and may be attracted by a brilliant light. The earliest known British locality for the species was Holme Fen in Huntingdonshire (1841-1848). In 1850 it was found abundantly at Whittlesea Mere. Its haunts in the
present day are Wicken and Chippenham fens in Cambridgeshire, but specimens from these localities are somewhat smaller than the old Hunts examples. Barrett states that he put down some eggs of the species in Ranworth Fen, Norfolk, and that five years later two males were captured within a short distance of the spot where the eggs had been placed.
The range abroad extends to China and Japan.
SESIIDÆ.
This family—the Ægeriadæ of some authors—has over one hundred Palæarctic species assigned to it; these are distributed among five genera, two of which are not represented in Britain. Fourteen species are found in the British Isles, but to obtain fine specimens of most of them the mature caterpillars or the chrysalids will have to be collected and the moths reared. All species emerge from the chrysalis early in the forenoon, and then only under the influence of sunshine.