).^'j.^ 



228 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



liaving on the widest part a round pale spot of dirty ochreous ; 

 sides much mottled with grey ; dots and spiracles black, and 

 under the latter a pale pinkish, ochreous, brown stripe ; head 

 shining brownish ochreous, with two black dots in front of each 

 lobe. (Adapted from Buckler.) It feeds on heather, bilberry, 

 birch, grass, etc September to June. The moth flies in July 

 and August. 



^, The Square -spot Rustic {Noctua {Segetia) xantJwgrapha). 



o^'y' Four examples of this very common and most variable species 



are shown on Plate 114, Figs. 9-12. The colour of the fore 

 wings ranges from whity brown, or drab, through various shades 

 of grey-brown and red-brown to blackish. The more or less 

 square reniform, and the orbicular, marks are subject to a good 

 deal of modification ; in some specimens they are whitish or 

 ochreous and very conspicuous, and in others exceedingly faint 

 or entirely missing ; or the reniform may be well defined and 

 prominent, and the orbicular absent ; the cross lines are fre- 

 quently obscure, except the dark-edged, pale submarginal, and 

 this, too, may be wanting ; occasionally there is a blackish shade 

 between the stigmata and extending from the front to inner 

 margins. The hind wings of the males are whitish, with a dark 

 marginal border of variable width, but rarely, so far as I have 

 noted, entirely absent ; those of the females are uniformly darker. 

 The full-grown caterpillar (Plate 112, Fig. 3) is hardly 

 separable from that of N. nvibrosa^ and feeds at the same date 

 on low-growing plants, etc. The moth flies in August and early 

 Se|)tember. It is generally distributed throughout the liritish 

 Isles, and is abundant pretty well everywhere. 



The Flame Shoulder {AW/i/a ( Ochropkura) plcda). 

 This moth (Plate no. Fig. 7) is also common, and generally 

 distributed throughout England, Ireland, Scotland (mainland), 



