THE SMALL LAPPET. 1 25 



grassy lanes, ditch-sides, fens, marshes, moorlands, and sand- 

 hills ; and is not really uncommon in very many suitable 

 districts throughout the United Kingdom. Abroad, it is common 

 over the greater part of Europe and its range extends to 

 Amurland and Japan. 



The Small Lappet {Epicnaptera ilicifolia). 



This exceedingly local and rare British moth has the fore 

 wings pale reddish-brown, suffused on the outer marginal area 

 \\ ith grey ; about the centre of the wings there is a short black 

 line preceded by a whitish mark ; beyond is a blackish, 

 indistinct, wavy line ; the greyish outer area is limited by a 

 brown line, and this is inwardly edged with whitish : hind wings 

 purplish brown with the central area whitish and crossed by a 

 blackish line. Fringes whitish, marked with brown at the ends 

 of the veins (Plate 63). 



Kirby states that the caterpillar is rust coloured, with a black 

 stripe on the back, on which stand white dots ; and with 

 reddish-yellow transverse "spots on the second and third rings. 

 Another form is grey, and the back white, with a broad black 

 central stripe interrupted by rust-coloured spots dotted with 

 black. 



The following brief description is taken from an inflated skin 

 of an immature caterpillar received from Dresden : brownish 

 inclining to reddish, paler between the rings ; clothed with 

 short greyish hair, and longer hairs from and above the fleshy 

 tubercles low down along the sides ; there is a hair-clothed 

 eminence on ring eleven. The only conspicuous markings are 

 on rings two and three ; each of these has two orange spots 

 separated and narrowly edged externally with velvety black ; 

 there are two small black spots on the back of each of the other 

 rings, and indications of reddish circles around some of these. 

 Head blackish, covered with greyish hairs (Plate 62). 



