THE SCALLOPED HOOK-TIP. 137 



white, chequered with brown. Sometimes the freckling is 

 heavy and the clouding very dark, becoming almost black on 

 the outer margin ; such specimens seem to be referable to var. 

 scincula^ Hiibn. In another form the fore wings are ochreous 

 brown, with very tiny freckling and only light clouds on the 

 upper part of the outer margin. The hind wings in all the forms 

 are pale whitish brown, with a black central dot, and brown 

 marginal line ; in the darker specimens these wings are clouded 

 or suffused with dark brown (Plate 71). 



The ^g'g is pale yellowish when laid, but changes after- 

 wards to reddish. The full-grown caterpillar is pale brownish, 

 marked with darker or reddish brown on the back and sides, 

 and raised spots ; there are double-pointed humps on rings two 

 and three, and a similar but smaller elevation on ring eleven. 

 In the younger state the caterpillar is blackish, with whitish 

 marks on the fourth, seventh, and eighth rings, and some white 

 dots on the end rings. It feeds on the upper surface of the 

 leaves of birch in June and July, and again in August and 

 September. 



Chrysalis, reddish brown, the ring divisions blackish grey ; 

 powdered with whitish, and appearing as though dusted with 

 flour. Attached by the anal spike to the interior of the silken 

 web-like cocoon. In the Figure (Plate 69) the pupa is shown 

 hanging from the ruptured cocoon, upon the covering leaf of 

 which a half-grown caterpillar is depicted. 



The moth is out in May and June, and a second generation 

 appears in August. It is not uncommon in most birch woods, and 

 on heaths and commons, where birch flourishes ; but the perfect 

 insect, which rests on leaves and twigs of trees and bushes, and 

 the herbage under them, is not so frequently or so easily 

 obtained as the caterpillars. The latter may be searched for in 

 the daytime, or they may be dislodged by beating. 



Widely distributed throughout England, but local or scarce in 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire and northwards ; also, according to 



