THE SILVER BARRED. 57 



Marbled White Spot (Lithacodia {Erastria) fasciand)* 



The ground colour of the fore wings of this species (Plate 21, 

 Fig. 7) is brownish grey, more or less clouded and sometimes 

 suffused with blackish ; the white patch on the outer marginal 

 area is, in some examples, much obscured by dark-grey mark- 

 ings, and in occasional specimens the only trace of white on 

 this part of the wing is a thin edging to the second line (ab. 

 albilmea, Haworth). Has been referred to Hapaliiis. 



The caterpillar is pale yellowish, with a greenish, sometimes 

 red, tinged line along the middle of the back, and a brown one 

 on each side ; a reddish line under the black spiracles ; head, 

 brownish ; the raised dots of the body are dusky edged with 

 reddish. It feeds from July to September. A reddish form of 

 this caterpillar has been noted. Buckler, from whose description 

 the above has been condensed, states that the food-plant is blue 

 moor-grass, or purple melic-grass {Molmia cartded)^ and this 

 is confirmed by Bignell, who remarks that in Devonshire he 

 easily finds the caterpillars "feeding about half way up the 

 blades " of this grass. 



The moth is out in June and July, or in forward seasons in late 

 May. It is partial to pine and larch trunks as a resting place 

 during the day, and is local and more or less frequent in most 

 of the southern counties, from Kent to Cornwall, through 

 Somerset and Gloucester (extending into Oxford), to Hereford 

 and Worcester, on the west, and from Essex to Norfolk on the 

 east. A specimen was taken at light in Chester in June, 1901. 



The range abroad extends to Japan. 



The Silver Barred {Ba?ikia (Erastria) argentula). 



In its typical form this species (Plate 21, Fig. 4) has the 

 colour of the fore wings olive brown, but occasionally it is 



