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"14/^- WILLOW BEAUTY. 305 



I \^,ft9 Willow Beauty {Boannia gemmaria), " ^ 



The two portraits on Plate 130 represent the best known forms ^ ^ 

 of this species. Stephens in 1831 referred the smoky or dark '^-j. 

 slaty grey form (Fig. 6), which is the ordinary one in the London 

 district, now as then, to rhomboidaria. Newman subsequently 

 named this ioim perfujnaria, and he, and other entomologists 

 of the time, considered it as a species distinct from geinmaria 

 — rhomboidaria. We now know that the smoky grey specimens 

 are not peculiar to the metropolitan area, but occur in other 

 parts of England (Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc.), 

 and are found, with the type, at Howth and other localities in 

 Ireland. The more general forms throughout England, Wales, 

 Ireland, and Scotland up to Perthshire, are pale brown, or 

 greyish brown (typical), sometimes ochreous tinged (Fig. 5) ; 

 the latter is referable to ab. consobri?iaria, Haworth. Black 

 forms have been recorded from Norwich in Norfolk, and 

 blackish specimens have been noted from Ashdown Forest, 

 Sussex ; from Cannock Chase, Staffordshire ; and from the 

 south of Scotland. 



The eggs (Plate 131, Fig. la) are green at first, changing to 

 pink mottled with green, and finally to dark grey ; the latter 

 change indicates early hatching of the caterpillar, which usually 

 occurs about a fortnight after the eggs are deposited. 



The caterpillar (Plate 131, Fig. i, after a coloured drawing by 

 Mr. A. Sich) is dull reddish brown, mottled more or less with 

 ochreous; traces of diamond-shaped marks on the back, the 

 latter sometimes well defined. It feeds on ivy (in London 

 gardens especially), hawthorn, birch, privet, lilac, rose, clematis, 

 broom, and many other shrubs, and also on yew and fir, in 

 August, and after hibernation in the spring. The moth is out 

 in July and August ; sometimes a second brood occurs in 

 September. 



Series II. ^ 



