DARK MARBLED CARPET. I7I 



the typical form of truncata^ but it has some of the character 

 of concmnata. The latter, it may be mentioned, is considered 

 by Mr. L. B. Prout to be a distinct species, and as the genitalia 

 have been found, on examination by Mr. Pierce, to differ from 

 these organs in truncata and iinmanata^ there seems to be 

 reason to accept it as such. 



The caterpillar is long, slender, and wrinkled, especially on 

 the sides ; the ground colour is green, inclining to yellowish ; 

 three lines along the back, the central one dark green, and the 

 others yellowish ; sometimes a rosy stripe, or a series of dashes 

 along the sides ; the points on the last ring are green, or rosy. 

 It feeds, in the autumn and again in the spring after hiber- 

 nation, on sallow, birch, hawthorn, bilberry, wild strawberry, 

 etc. It will also eat rose, but as the specimens resulting from 

 caterpillars reared on rose are frequently small, such food is 

 probably unsuitable ; garden strawberry, on the other hand, is 

 an excellent pabulum. A photograph of the caterpillar by Mr. 

 H. Main is shown on Plate 69, Fig. i. There is a second brood 

 in late June and in July. The first generation of the moth is 

 out in May and June, and the second emerges in the autumn ; 

 specimens, possibly of a third generation, have been seen in 

 December in favourable locahties. 



The species, which frequents woods and hedgerows, and is 

 pretty generally common, is to be found almost everywhere 

 throughout the British Isles. It has not, however, been noted 

 from Shetland. 



The distribution abroad extends to Amurland, China, and 

 Japan. 



Dark Marbled Carpet {Cidaria imma/tata). 



This is another exceedingly variable species (Plate 66), and 

 here again six examples have been chosen to illustrate some- 

 thing of the range of aberration. Figs. 7 and 8 are of the 



