143 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



The caterpillar varies in colour from ochreous with pink tinge 

 to bone white ; the warts are set with pale hairs and those along 

 the back and at each extremity are longest ; a double greyish line 

 along the middle of the back, and a series of black marks on 

 each side ; these marks unite across the back on rings six and 

 ten. After hibernation, it feeds in Spring until June, on the 

 young growth of bramble, raspberry, strawberry, and cinquefoil 

 {Potcntilla reptaHs\ and is stated to also eat hemp agrimony 

 (^EuPatoriui)i camiabiiiuin). The brownish cocoon is con- 

 structed on a stem of grass and in appearance looks not unlike 

 a swelling of the stem. 



This species was first observed in England in the year 1859, 

 when four specimens were taken in July at Chattenden Roughs, 

 a large hilly wood in North-east Kent. It still occurs, no doubt, 

 in the Kentish locality referred to, but is now very scarce there 

 compared with what it must have been some twenty-five 

 years ago. Barrett notes a specimen from the Isle of Wight. 

 Mr. G. T. Porritt states that he has seen one of two examples 

 captured in South Devon in 190 [ ; and another, a male, has 

 been recorded as taken at light in a house near Weymouth, 

 Dorset, in August, 1904, and from Lewes in 1906. 



At the time the first specimens were met with in England the 

 species seems to have been rare, or little known on the 

 Continent. Since then knowledge of its distribution has vastly 

 increased, and it has now been found not only in many parts of 

 Central Europe, but also in Finland, Italy, Dalmatia ; Asia 

 Minor, Persia, and extending into Amurland and Japan. 



The Scarce Black Arches {Nola ccntonalis). 



The general colour of this moth is white ; the fore wings 

 more or less sprinkled and clouded with brownish grey or dark 

 grey, and crossed by two black lines, the first curved and the 

 second slightly waved, indented and edged inwardly with 



