THE ARGENT AND SABLE. 20I 



August and September. One of the mouse-ear chickweeds 

 {Cerastium ^lomeratwn) has also been mentioned as a food 

 plant, and for rearing the caterpillars this would perhaps be 

 useful, as common chickweed, unless in a growing state, is 

 difficult to keep in a suitable condition for larval requirements. 



The moth, which is partial to a hedgerow as a hiding-place, 

 is out in June and July, and may be sometimes reared as a 

 second generation in September. 



The species is somewhat local, but it is not scarce in many 

 parts of England ; its range does not appear to extend north- 

 wards beyond Worcestershire on the western side, although it 

 has been recorded from North Wales; on the eastern side it 

 is found up to Norfolk. 



The Argent and Sable {Eulype hastata). 



About one hundred and sixty years ago Wilkes figured this 

 species as " The Mottled Beauty," but Harris in 1778 gave it 

 its present English name. On Plate 82 are shown two examples 

 of the typical form (Figs. 7, 8), also two specimens of the small 

 form (Figs. 10, 11), var. subhastata, Nolcken {=■ hastulata, 

 Hiibner) ; the latter form in Britain occurs chiefly in Suther- 

 landshire and the Isle of Lewis. As regards variation there 

 IS, in the small form, a tendency to an increase of black ; 

 whilst in the typical form there is a considerable reduction of 

 the black marking — so much so occasionally that of the central 

 black band only a few dots remain around the discal spot, and 

 perhaps a speck or two below it, and a dot or two on the inner 

 margin (ab. deinoliia, Prout). 



The rather stumpy caterpillar is dark olive-green, inclining 

 to blackish, and somewhat shiny ; the skin along the sides 

 puckered and marked with ochreous ; a black line along the 

 middle of the back ; head, black and glossy. It feeds, in 

 July and August, later in the north, on birch, Vacctnium, chiefly 



