194 THE MOTHS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



the wings smoky leaden-grey, and the central bar of the fore 

 wings pale grey-brown, was taken near Longfleet in Wiltshire, 

 in the summer of 1881. 



The caterpillar is wrinkled, with a ridge along the sides ; in 

 colour it is pale brown, inclining to purplish with blackish dots ; 

 three lines along the back, the central one dark greyish, the 

 others paler and broader ; below the latter the sides are greyish 

 tinted with a lower edging of pale yellowish brown. It feeds at 

 night on bedstraw, and various low-growing herbage, including 

 grass. August to April. 



The moth is out in June and July, sometimes earlier in the 

 south. It is generally distributed, and, as a rule, common, in 

 woodlands, lanes, etc., throughout the British Isles. 



/',!«■<■ „ ,U) 

 l^'^^ ''^ U'^ Garden Carpet {Xanthorhoe fliickLata). 



U \'>^'^ Of this common frequenter of our gardens four examples are 



depicted on Plate 80. Figs. 11 and 13 are the more frequent 



A^ forms, but specimens with the central band complete, as in 



-Ptfiy Fig. 12, are not uncommon. Chiefly, but by no means exclu- 



* 0,0 sively, in Southern localities, some examples have the ground 



* \ \ colour almost pure white ; often the wings are more or less 

 ^gu.^ ■ suffused with dark grey (ab. neapoUsata, Milliere), and this is 



7 especially the case in Scotland, where, in Aberdeenshire and in 

 Shetland, a blackish form, ab. thules, Prout, occurs. Fig. 14 

 represents a specimen of this form from Aberdeen. Somewhat 

 rarely, the central band is only indicated by a small spot on the 

 front area of the wing (ab. costovata, Haworth), and more often 

 the band is much narrowed or otherwise modified in the direc- 

 tion of that aberration. Fig. 4, Plate 61, shows an extreme 

 example of this form. Specimens vary in size from rather under 

 one inch to one inch and a half in expanse. 



The caterpillar varies in colour from dark grey through 

 yellowish green to obscure green, but the underside is always 



