THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES.
NOCTUIDÆ.
TRIFINÆ (continued).
The Heart Moth (Dicycla oo).
A male specimen of the ordinary form of this moth is shown on Plate [2], Fig. 1. Ab. renago, Haworth has the space between the central shade and the submarginal line more or less suffused with dusky or reddish grey. An intermediate form (Fig. 2) has a transverse band of darker colour between the second and submarginal lines of the fore wings (ab. ferruginago, Hübn.). The ground colour varies from a whitish or straw-yellow to reddish yellow (ab. rufescens, Tutt), and the markings are more distinct in some specimens than in others.
The caterpillar, which feeds from April to early June on the foliage of the oak, is black above and brownish beneath; there are three white lines on the back, the central one widest and more or less interrupted; the stripe along the black-outlined reddish spiracles is yellowish-white; head, and plate on first ring of the body, black and shining.
The moth appears about the end of June or early July, and has been noted, in good condition, as late as August 17. It seems to be of very local occurrence in England, but some of
its known haunts nearest to London are Bromley in Kent, Richmond Park and Norbury in Surrey. At Palmer's Green, Middlesex, a specimen was found on an oak trunk, July 27, 1902, and a female example came to light in West London in 1906. In 1888 it was plentiful at sugar in the Bromley district. The New Forest in Hampshire is a noted locality for the species, but although it may abound there in some years, in other years it is scarce or entirely absent. It is rather more constant in Epping, Romford, and some other of the Essex woodlands, and occurs also in Berkshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire, and Devon. Odd specimens have been recorded from Tarrington, Herefordshire; St. Albans, Hertfordshire; and from Tuddenham, Suffolk. The var. renago, and its modifications, has been chiefly obtained in Essex and Huntingdonshire, but it has been found also in the Reading district, and elsewhere.
The Lunar-spotted Pinion (Calymnia pyralina).
There are two colour forms of this species; var. corusca, Esp., is rather brighter in colour than the female specimen shown on Plate [2], Fig. 3, which approaches more nearly the duller coloration of the type as described by Vieweg. The latter is perhaps the least frequent in England generally, but it occurs sparingly in Middlesex.