HE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



he Broad-barred White {Hecatera serend). 



•f the British examples of this species have the thorax 

 and fore wings almost pure white, the latter with a central blackish 

 grey band (var. Iciiconota^ Ev., Plate 125, Figs. 3 (^ , 4 9 )• The 

 white, however, especially on the outer margin, is sometimes 

 clouded with greyish, and occasionally the ground colour has a 

 greyish tinge, thus approaching var. obscura^ Staudinger. The 

 caterpillar is ochreous brown, more or less tinged with green, 

 minutely dotted with dark grey, forming indistinct blotches ; 

 the stripe along the black spiracles is yellow tinged with green 

 below. Head brownish, glossy. It feeds in July and August 

 on hawk's-beard {Crcpis). The smaller caterpillars may be 

 found by day resting on the yellow flowers. In confinement 

 they will eat the flowers and seeds of garden lettuce ; and Prout 

 mentions dandelion blossoms, and also those of almost any of 

 the Compositas. The moth is out from June to August, and in 

 the daytime may be seen sitting on fences, tree trunks, rocks 

 and walls. It is pretty generally distributed in the southern 

 portion of England, but becomes scarce northwards. In 

 Scotland it seems to be little known, but Renton records it 

 as common in Roxburghshire, and in 1898 Mr. Kirkaldy kindly 

 gave me three greyish-shaded specimens that he picked up 

 casually at Pitlochry, Perthshire, in July of that year. It has 

 been found in North Wales, but is more frequent in the southern 

 parts of that country. Rather local and usually scarce in 1 reland ; 

 but has been found in counties Waterford, Dublin, Wicklow, 

 Louth, Antrim, Westmeath, (ialway, Cork, and Kerry. The 

 range abroad extends to Siberia and Amurland. 



The Bordered Gothic (Nairia rctiaUatd), 



The cross lines and the veins are pale brown, sometimes 

 tinged with pink. These markings give the moth (Plate 126. 



