2 Pl. 1.

1. Orange-tailed Clearwing. 2, 3, 5. Zygæna achilleæ.

4, 6, 8. Brindled Beauty, variety; 7. Caterpillar of do.

THE MOTHS

OF THE

BRITISH ISLES

BY

RICHARD SOUTH, F.E.S.

AUTHOR OF
"THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BRITISH ISLES"
EDITOR OF "THE ENTOMOLOGIST," ETC.

SECOND SERIES

COMPRISING

THE FAMILIES NOCTUIDÆ TO HEPIALIDÆ

WITH
ACCURATELY COLOURED FIGURES
OF EVERY SPECIES AND MANY VARIETIES
ALSO DRAWINGS OF EGGS, CATERPILLARS,
CHRYSALIDS AND FOOD-PLANTS

LONDON

FREDERICK WARNE & CO.

AND NEW YORK

1909

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE.

In the present and previous series of "The Moths of the British Isles," over 750 species have been portrayed on the plates and described in the text—a number that includes all those insects formerly grouped under the now obsolete term "Macro-Lepidoptera." The task of dealing with so many species in two volumes has necessarily imposed brevity in their treatment; but it is hoped that nothing has been omitted that could be legitimately regarded as falling within the scope of volumes especially designed for the votaries of Nature Study.

To have comprised in this scheme the large contingent of our moths known as "Micro-Lepidoptera" would have reduced further the space available for those species which experience shows appeal to the majority of nature students in a way that the minuter forms may not do. Even then, only a few general remarks on each group would have been possible, with, perhaps, a portrait or two of representative species. Such a course seemed hardly likely to prove of practical utility. The "Small Fry," as they have been called, exceedingly interesting though they may be to a limited number of students, have therefore been left for separate treatment at some more convenient season.

Both classification and nomenclature are always under revision, and we are probably a long way from hearing the last word concerning either. These are, however, matters that

cannot be ignored even in a popular work; consequently I have ventured to adopt sundry changes in arrangement and in names which, although not departing from the old style in any very large way, still approach pretty closely to the new.

I have again to tender my sincere thanks to Mr. Robert Adkin, F.E.S., for kindly lending specimens of rare species and varieties for figuring; and also to Mr. B. Adkin, Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.E.S., and Mr. A. J. Scollick, F.E.S. I desire also to gratefully acknowledge the loan of further beautiful coloured drawings by Mr. Alfred Sich, F.E.S. These figures have been most accurately reproduced in black and white by Mr. Horace Knight, to whom I am greatly indebted for his able assistance in connection with the numerous drawings of ova, larvæ, and pupæ. In some cases the preserved skin of a caterpillar had to serve as a model, and where this occurs the fact is mentioned. A few figures of larvæ have been copied from Dr. G. Hofmann's Die Raupen der Schmetterlinge Europas, 2nd edit., by Professor Dr. Arnold Spuler. All such reproductions are duly noted in the text.

Mr. Knight is also responsible for the coloured drawings for Plates 1, 13, 36, 61, 96, 98, 100, 104, 134, and 148; the figures on which, except that of Zygæna filipendulæ ab. chrysanthemi, are from specimens.

"A Forester," Mr. H. Main, F.E.S., and Mr. W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S., were good enough to furnish prints of some of their excellent photographs depicting life-history details of moths and caterpillars in repose, as met with in nature.

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,