The caterpillar is green, with whitish warts emitting fine hairs, and has three lines along the back, the central one white and stripe-like; a yellow stripe low down along the sides is edged above with black. It feeds in April and May on elm, oak, apple, plum, etc., among the leaves of which it hides by day, and may be dislodged therefrom by jarring the boughs. (Plate [3], Fig. 2, after Hofmann.)
|
| 2 Pl. 2. |
| 1. | Heart Moth. | 4, 5. | Lesser-spotted Pinion. |
|
| 2. | He"rt M"th. var. renago. | 6, 7. | White-spotted Pinion. |
|
| 3. | Lunar-spotted Pinion. | 8-11. | Dun-bar. |
|
|
| 2 Pl. 3. |
| 1. | Dingy Shears: caterpillar. |
|
| 2. | Lunar-spotted Pinion: caterpillar. |
|
| 3. | White-spotted Pinion: caterpillar. |
|
The moth is out from about mid-July to mid-August. On some nights it will come freely to sugar and on others it seems more partial to honeydew. It is obtained most frequently perhaps in Berkshire, Middlesex, Surrey, and Hampshire, but it is also known to occur in Devon, Dorset, Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Cambs., Hunts, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and South Wales. A specimen has been taken at a gas lamp in Chester.
Abroad, the range extends to Japan.
The Lesser-spotted Pinion (Calymnia affinis).
This species varies in the ground colour of the forewings from reddish (typical) to greyish brown (var. suffusa, Tutt). A pale ochreous-brown form has been named ochrea, Tutt. The cross markings and stigmata are sometimes all well defined, but often the latter are hardly traceable, the cross lines only distinct on the front margin, and the outer one frequently is conspicuously widened. One example of each sex is shown on Plate [2], Figs. 4 ♂ and 5 ♀.