126 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



In this country the caterpillar feeds on bilberry ( Vacciniiint 

 myrlillus)^ but on the Continent it is, said to eat the foliage of 

 sallows and willows, also of birch. 



The cocoon is spun up among the leaves of the food plant. 

 That figured on Plate 62, of foreign origin, was on a shoot of 

 bilberry ; a moth emerged from it on April 5, 1907. The 

 first detailed account of this species in Britain is that in the 

 Zoologist ior 1852, in which Mr. Atkinson records that he took 

 a specimen in May, 185 1, at Cannock Chase in Staffordsljire. A 

 year earlier two larvte were found by Mr. Green on a moor near 

 Sheffield, and one of these attained the moth state in April, 

 1851. After this moths and caterpillars seem to have been 

 taken in varying numbers down to 1896, when a specimen was 

 captured by Dr. R. P^eer of Rugby. Tutt, quoting from a letter 

 received from Dr. Freer, states that two moths were reared 

 from three caterpillars found at Cannock in 1898. The only 

 other known British locality is in the neighbourhood of Lynton, 

 North Devon, where a caterpillar, which, from the description, 

 must have been this species, was found in 1864. It was taken 

 on August 3 in a wood abounding with bilberry. 



The species ranges over Central Europe, but seems to be 

 generally rare ; it also occurs in Amurland and Japan. 



The Lappet ( Gastropacha qiiercifolid). 



Warm reddish brown is the prevailing colour of this fine 

 moth. The wings are more or less suffused with purplish grey, 

 and crossed by blackish lines — three on the fore wings and two 

 on the hind wings. Except in the reddish tinge, which may be 

 bright or dull approaching chocolate, this species is pretty 

 constant in its coloration. Barrett mentions a specimen of a 

 light brown colour, and another of a pale buff. The first of 

 these forms seems to approach the var, mcridio7ialis^ Staudinger 

 (Tutt), and the other to var. ubnifolia^ Heuacker, which are 



