252 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



(The Pod Lover), which represents the species in Ireland and 

 the Isle of Man, is of a greyish coloration and lacks the 

 ochreous tint ; the dark markings, especially on the area 

 between the first and second cross lines, are blackish or black, 

 and the outlines of the stigmata are very distinct. Kane mentions 

 dull black specimens, from the Blasket Islands, in which only 

 vestiges of the stigmata and submarginal line remained clear. 

 Pembrokeshire specimens have a colour range intermediate 

 between carpophaga (Plate 124, Fig. 9) and var. capsopJiila 

 (Figs. 7, 8), and serve to connect one with the other. The cater- 

 pillar, which is purplish brown with rather broad ochreous-brown 

 lines on the back, feeds in June and July and again in September, 

 on seeds of catchfly, campion, and sweet-william. The moth flies 

 in May and June, sometimes in late July and August. 



The Yiper's Bugloss (Diajii/uvda (Epia) irregularis). 



The earliest British specimen of this moth (Plate 125, Fig. i) 

 of which there is any clear record is that found by the late 

 Rev. A. H. Wratislaw, in July, 1868, resting on viper's bugloss 

 {Ecliinnt vidgare)^ in a locality about ten miles from Bury St. 

 Edmunds. Subsequently Tuddenham was indicated as the 

 locality, and there, as well as in other parts of the Breck Sand 

 district of Suffolk and Norfolk the species continues to flourish. 

 Echiiwi was at first supposed to be the food plant, but it was 

 soon ascertained the larval pabulum was the flowers and seeds 

 of the local catchfly {Silene otites). In September, 1870, Mr. 

 Porritt described the caterpillar, and he found that in confine- 

 ment it did not object to Ragged Robin {Lychnis flos-cucuW) in 

 place of the Silene. 



In colour the caterpillar is pale yellowish brown, tinged with 

 green ; three more or less distinct pale lines, and a series of 

 smoke-coloured V-shaped marks on the back. Spiracles black 

 with a yellowish white stripe below them, and a smoke-coloured 



