278 COMMON BBITISH MOTHS 



Family — Macariid.e 

 The V Moth {Halia Vauaria) 



The family Macariidce contains only five British species, four 

 of which have the tip of the fore wings extended more or less into 

 an angle, and the hind ^\'inc,^s are also angled to a greater or less 

 extent. 



Our only example is the V Moth, so called Irom the conspicuous 

 V-shaped blackish mark on the middle 

 of the costa of the fore wings. The ground 

 colour of all the wings is grey, with a 

 delicate violet tinge. There are other 

 dark markings in addition to the one 

 mentioned above, and the arrangement of 

 Fig. 188 — The V these may be seen in the woodcut. 



"■ This s[)ecies is very common in all 



parts, and flies at about midsummer. 

 The caterpillar is very variable in colour, but is generally green, 

 and is marked with longitudinal wavy lines. On each side is a series 

 of yellow blotches, forming a broken lateral stripe, and the body 

 is covered with minute black bristle-bearing warts. It feeds in 

 May on gooseberry' and currant bushes, and changes to a chrysalis 

 in a web between the leaves. 



Family — Fidoniid.^e 



We now come to a fiimily of moths peculiar for their habit of 

 flying more or less by day. As is often the case with day-flying 

 moths, these are mostly prettily marked, and are consequently 

 often mistaken by the uninitiated for butterflies. Most of them 

 are to be found on heaths, downs, and open fields; but one — the 

 Bordered White — is met with only in fir woods. 



The wings are not angulatcd, and the iintcnnte of tlie males arc 

 pectinated. 



The larviE are generally to be distinguished by a couple of little 

 horns on one or more of the hindermost segments, and in most 

 cases they pupate beneath the sxu'face of the soil. 



The Common Heath {Ematurga alouuii-id) 



Of this family we shall select two examples, the first of which is 

 the Common Heath, often so abundant on heaths and downs that 

 they are disturbed at almost every footstep. 



