PALE OAK BEAUTY. 309 



found on oak trees rather high up the trunks. When on the 

 wing at night it will visit the sugar patch. 



The species occurs most frequently in the New Forest, 

 Hampshire, where, in some years, it is very common. Other 

 English counties in which it has been found, or still exists, 

 are — Devon (Cann Woods), Dorset (Cranborne and Bloxworth), 

 Wilts. (Savernake Forest), Sussex (Abbots Wood, Charlton 

 Forest, Holme Bank, etc.), Surrey (Addington, June, 1902), 

 Kent, Essex (Epping Forest), Berks., Bucks., Warwick (Prince- 

 thorpe Wood), Worcester (Wyre Forest), Stafford (Cannock 

 Chase), Cheshire (Dunham Park), York (wood near Selby), 

 Lancashire (Corporation and Quernmore Woods). 



Pale Oak Beauty {Boar?nia consortaria). 



Some specimens are rather greyer, and the cross markings 

 are occasionally less distinct than in Figs, i 5 , and 3 ? on Plate 

 135, which represent the typical forms of this species in England. 

 Examples of a blackish form have been noted from a wood in 

 West Kent, and these are apparently referable to the melanic 

 ab. humperti^ Humpert, but the Kentish specimens I have seen 

 had the second line of fore wings edged with white, and a white 

 submarginal line. 



The caterpillar, which in shape is somewhat like that of the 

 last species, varies in colour. One form is greenish grey, with 

 three lines, the central one darker than those on each side. In 

 another the colour is pale brown mottled with reddish and a 

 darker brown. It feeds on oak, birch, and sometimes sallow, 

 in July and August. 



The moth is out in June and July, and specimens have been 

 recorded as captured in September. It may be found on the 

 trunks of oak and fir trees, and will come to sugar and light at 

 night. Although local it is not uncommon in the New Forest 

 and other woods in Hampshire ; also in Sussex, Surrey, Kent, 



