THE COPPER UXDERWING. 323 



rings, is edged on each side with dark brown, and the shading 

 of the outer Hnes is interrupted by obhque pale dashes ; head, 

 shining- dark brown, ahnost blackish. It feeds on grasses, and 

 many low-growing plants from August to May. (Plate 152 

 Fig. 4.) The moth flies in June and July, sometimes earlier. The 

 species is generally distributed over nearly the whole of England, 

 but more local in the north than in the south. It is found in 

 North and South Wales. In Scotland it is locally abundant and 

 widely distributed up to Ross, and occurs in the Hebrides. It 

 is also widely spread in Ireland, and common in some parts. 



Uinbratica^ Goeze, is said to be an earlier name for this 

 species, and will probably have to be adopted. 



The Copper Underwing {Amphipyra pyramideLi). ^^S^\ 



The striking species shown on i'late 154, Figs, i to 3, varies \ r 

 somewhat in the tint of its brown-coloured fore wings, and in ~^<v..^"' 

 the greater or lesser amount of blackish shading on the central ^sA 

 area ; the latter is sometimes quite absent, and not infrequently 

 the outer marginal area is pale ochreous brown. The hind 

 wings, normally of a coppery colour, are occasionally paler, and 

 sometimes of a reddish hue. 



The caterpillar is green with three interrupted whitish stripes 

 on the back ; the dots are yellowish ; and the stripe along the 

 black-edged white spiracles is whitish ; the back of ring eleven 

 is raised, forming a cone, the apex of which is hornlike and 

 slightly curved backwards; the head is green. It feeds from 

 April, or in forward seasons from March, to June, on the foliage 

 of oak, birch, sallow, plum, rose, and other trees and shrubs. 

 The moth (lies from late July to September, and sometimes 

 later. Although somewhat local in Southern England, it is 

 often common enough in the New Forest, and most of the 

 larger woods from Essex to Devonshire. Northwards from 

 Oxfordshire it becomes more local, less frequent, and e\ en rare, 



