220 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



FAMILY IX. CABERID.E. 

 ALEUCIS PICTARIA. THE GEEY CAEPET. 



This dull-looking insect has not been noticed in many 

 localities ; Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Suffolk being the 

 counties it specially patronizes, and probably nine-tenths 

 of the specimens in our collections have been taken at 

 Dartford Heath. 



The expansion of the wings is about an inch. 



The fore-wings are dark grey, with two rather wavy, 

 darker transverse lines, and a darker central spot; along 

 the hind margin is a row of black dots ; the hind-wings 

 are paler grey, intersected by a single wavy, darker line, 

 and with a row of dark grey spots along the hind- 

 margin. 



The larva is brownish-grey, more or less marbled 

 with whitish, particularly on the eighth and ninth seg- 

 ments j on the back of each of the fifth to eighth seg- 

 ments is a faint, blackish V-like mark, and on the 

 twelfth segment is a black transverse line ; on the third 

 and fourth segments there are short, oblique, lateral, 

 black streaks ; there is a black spot on the side of each 

 of the sixth to ninth segments above the whitish 

 spiracles. It feeds on sloe in June, preferring the leaves 

 of stunted sloe-bushes. 



The perfect insect appears in April, about the time 

 that the sloe is in blossom ; and the stunted sloe-bushes 

 on exposed heathy situations should then be searched at 

 dusk with a lantern by those desirous of obtaining this 

 insect, which, a few years ago, was esteemed a great 

 rarity. 



