Eggs (Plate [47], Fig. 1a), laid in a batch on a dried leaf of dandelion, were whitish at first, but turned reddish later.
The elongated and somewhat flattened caterpillar (figured on Plate [47], Fig. 1, from a coloured drawing by Mr. Sich) is ochreous, with brown lines on the back, the central one double, and interrupted on the middle rings, upon which are oblique pale-brown dashes. It feeds, from September to April, on beaked parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), burnet saxifrage (Pimpinella), etc., and may be reared on withered leaves of dandelion and other weeds. The moth is out in June and July, and in northern localities in August. Generally distributed, and often common.
Treble Brown Spot (Acidalia (Ptychopoda) trigeminata).
This species (Plate [46], Figs. 8, 11) is similar to the last, but generally rather larger and somewhat paler; the front edge of the fore wings is marked with blackish or dark purplish grey, and there is a band of the same colour on the outer marginal area; the inner edge of this band is formed by the second line, and the outer edge is wavy, interrupted above the middle, and sometimes below also.
The rough and rather flattened caterpillar tapers towards the head; in colour it is dusky brown. The markings comprise interrupted black lines and V-shaped blackish marks on the back. Buckler states that this caterpillar may be distinguished from those of its nearest allies by having a rather long, dingy ochreous bristle from each of the raised dots; these bristles, which are of the same thickness throughout, curve forwards on all rings to the ninth, and on the other three backwards. It feeds, from September to April, on various low-growing plants, ivy, birch, etc. If kept warm, it is said that whole broods will attain the moth state in July or August; this may happen sometimes, but in my experience only a few individuals have obliged in this way. The moth is another inhabitant of the hedgerow and the bushy wood-border, where it may be disturbed in the daytime during late May and June. It flies in the evening, and will visit light, and occasionally the sugar patch. Always a local species, but not uncommon in its special haunts in Kent, Surrey, Wiltshire, Essex, and Suffolk; it is also found more or less frequently in Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In Scotland, it is reported as scarce in Renfrew; and Kane notes that it does not occur in Ireland.
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| 2 Pl. 48. |
| 1. | Least Carpet: caterpillar. |
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| 2, 2a, 2b. | Small Blood-vein: egg enlarged, caterpillar and chrysalis. |
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| 2 Pl. 49. |
| 1, 2. | Cream Wave. | 3, 4. | Lesser Cream Wave. | 5-7. | Mullein Wave. |
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| 9. | Lewes Wave. | 8. | Sub-angled Wave. | 10. | Rosy Wave. |
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