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. 



Garden Carpet {Xanthorhoe fluctnatd). 



Of this common frequenter of our gardens four examples are 

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

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

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

 sively, in Southern localities, some examples have the ground 

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

 suffused with dark grey (ab. iieapolisata, ?vIilUere), and this is 

 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 



