The moth is out in May and the early part of June, and is most active in the sunshine, but flies on dull days when the weather is warm. It seems confined to the higher level of the mountains, and its habits are similar to those of the last species, but its range extends to the Shetland Isles. The species was not recognised as British until about 1830, and the same remark applies to A. cordigera.
The Small Yellow Underwing (Heliaca tenebrata).
The fore wings are a little more reddish in some specimens than in others, and occasionally the yellow of the hind wings is much reduced in area by the expansion of the black border, or it may be suffused with blackish. (Plate [17], Figs. 3 and 4.)
The caterpillar is green, with three lines along the back, the central one dark green and the others whitish, bordered below with dark green; the stripe low down along the sides is yellowish white, edged above with dark green. It feeds, in June and July, on mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium), devouring the blossom and seeds, when young boring into the unripe capsule.
The moth flies on sunny days in May and early June, and is more or less common in grass-bordered lanes, hay meadows, etc., in most counties throughout the southern part of England.
In the midland counties it appears to be far more local, thence to Durham (its northern limit in England) it is generally scarce. It has been recorded from Pembrokeshire and Flintshire, in Wales. A specimen has been reported from Robroyston, near Glasgow, in Scotland. As the species has been obtained in Kerry and Sligo, the probability is that it occurs in other parts of Ireland.
The Pease-blossom (Chariclea delphinii).
The beautifully tinted moth represented by Figs. 8 and 9 on Plate [17] was known as British to Haworth (1802), but it had been figured by Wilkes in 1773, and by Moses Harris in 1775. In 1829 Stephens remarked that there were then but few native specimens in British cabinets, among which were examples from the Windsor district "caught about fifteen years since, in June." He adds, the interest and value of these, and older specimens, was lessened by "the execrable practice of introducing Continental insects into collections." Stainton (1857) refers to the Windsor specimens only, and Newman (1869) ignores the species altogether. In 1902 two specimens were presented to the British Museum by Mr. J. F. Bennett, and are now in the National Collection of British Lepidoptera. These were obtained at Brighton in 1876 by the donor's father, but whether captured or reared is not known.
The Bordered Sallow (Pyrrhia umbra).
The fore wings of this species (Plate [17], Figs. 10, 11) in its typical form are yellow inclining to orange, with the outer area more or less tinted with purplish. In a paler form, ab. marginata, Fab., the fore wings are without the orange tint, and the outer area is rather greyish brown.