Both sexes of this species are shown on Plate [31], Figs. 2 and 3. The fore wings are darker in some specimens than in others, and very rarely, in connection with a change in the hind wings from red to brownish, there has been a purplish tinge over all the wings. Specimens with the hind wings of a brown tint have only so far been noted in the environs of London. In 1892 one was taken at Mitcham (warm brown), another at Wandsworth, 1895, a third at Chingford, 1896 (dusky black-brown), and a fourth at Brondesbury in 1897. At a meeting of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society, held on January 10, 1889, a coloured sketch of a specimen with blue hind wings, taken at Colchester, was exhibited (ab. cærulescens, Cockerell). Sometimes the hind wings are a dingy red, or they may incline to an orange tint; the central black band usually terminates just beyond the middle, but there is often a detached blackish cloud on the inner margin; and I have two specimens in which the band unites with this cloud.
| 2 Pl. 30. |
| Mother Shipton: eggs, natural size and enlarged, caterpillar, and chrysalis, natural size and enlarged. |
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| 2 Pl. 31. | ||||
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The eggs which are deposited on bark of poplar trees, as Fig. 2a on Plate [33], are deep purplish with a whitish bloom, and inclining to yellowish on the top. The caterpillar (Plate [33], Fig. 2) is whitish-grey clouded and mottled with darker brown; the head is rather paler grey, marked with black. It feeds at night on willow and poplar, and, although rather difficult to detect, may be found in the chinks of the bark from April to July. The pupa is brownish, thickly powdered with bluish-white, and is enclosed in a strong, coarse, cocoon, spun up between leaves.
The moth is out in August and September, sometimes later, and in confinement has emerged in July. It is more abundant in some years than in others, and is fond of sitting on walls, pales, etc.; occasionally quite large numbers have been observed at rest on telegraph poles by the roadside, only one on a pole, as a rule, but sometimes in twos and threes. Mr. W. J. Lucas, when at Oxford in August, 1900, counted six on one post, and five on each of two other posts.
The species is found in suitable localities, that is, where poplars and willows grow, throughout the south and east of England. The only clear record from Ireland is that of a worn specimen at sugar, September 16, 1906, at Passage West, co. Cork; but Kane mentions two others.
Represented in North India by var. unicuba, Walker, and in Amurland by var. obscurata, Oberthür.