398 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



suffused with pink anteriorly, the dorsal 

 broad stripe in some being faintly blackish, in 

 others reddish, but intensely black or red 

 forming a dark mark just at the beginning of 

 each segment ; in others this dark spot is 

 confluent with the two anterior tubercular 

 large black dots, thus forming blunt arrow- 

 head marks pointing forwards; the sub- dorsal 

 stripe of red or blackish is sometimes com- 

 plete, but oftener interrupted in the middle of 

 each segment ; the skin-folds at the incisions 

 are bright yellow ; the spiracles in all varie- 

 ties are white, placed in semicircular black 

 marks, and immediately beneath them is a 

 narrow stripe of pale sulphur-yellow or of 

 greenish-yellow ; the belly and legs are pale 

 green, tipped with red at their extremities ; 

 the tubercular dots are sometimes absent, but 

 when visible are black, and the anterior pair 

 very much larger than the pair behind them : 

 the head is green, suffused with pink ; a dull 

 pinkish plate on the second segment. One 

 olive-green caterpillar had the plate dark red, 

 and a large crimson spot on the top of each 

 lobe of the head. 



Var. 2. The ground-colour is cinnamon- 

 brown ; a narrow pale greenish stripe beneath 

 the spiracles ; the folds of the skin at the 

 segmental divisions grayish ; the dorsal stripe 

 faintly indicated by a dusky spot at the 

 beginning of each segment ; the sub-dorsal 

 stripes more distinct and faintly blackish. 



Var. 3. Deep dingy crimson on the back 

 and sides ; below the spiracles is a greenish- 

 yellow stripe ; the belly and legs, with the 

 head, and dull plate on the second segment, 

 rather paler than the back ; a broad dorsal 

 and naiTow sub-dorsal stripe of faint blackish, 

 but just at the beginning of each segment 

 quite black. 



Var. 4. The whole of the back between 

 he subdorsal lines a brilliant deep citron- 

 yellow, the sides from the sub-dorsal to the 

 lines of spiracles of the same ground-colour, 

 but almost entirely suffused with dark red : 

 the head and thoracic segments, with the anal 

 extremity, also suffused with red ; the dorsal 

 stripe composed of two red confluent lines 

 forming a broad stripe, with blunt arrow-head 



shapes of red at the beginning and end of 

 each segment, and anteriorly margined with 

 short black streaks; the tubercular dots black, 

 the anterior pairs being much the largest ; 

 sub-dorsal line black, and interrupted in the 

 middle of each segment ; the spiracles are 

 white in semi-linear blotches of black, and 

 edged below by a pale greenish-yellow stripe ; 

 belly greenish, with a large red blotch along 

 the sides above the legs, the latter being 

 orange-red. 



It feeds upon the great hedge bedstraw 

 (Galium mollugo), and is full-fed at the end of 

 .May and beginning of June. 



The MOTHS do not appear on the wing until 

 September and October, and the species 

 seem to be very local ; in Devonshire it 

 occurs at Ply m bridge, Ivy bridge, Totnes, 

 Kingsbridge, St. German's, Sal tash, Torquay, 

 Teignmouth, and Alphington; in Somerset- 

 shire, in the Isle of Wight, New Forest, Lewes, 

 and in the Lake District; it is also recorded 

 from Banff, in Scotland, but not from Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Epunda nigra.) 



629. The Minor Shoulder-knot (Epunda viminalis). 



629. THE MINOR SHOULDER-KNOT. The 

 palpi are slightly porrected and pointed ; the 

 antennae are slightly pectinated in the male, 

 simple in the female; the fore wings are 

 straight on the costa and rather produced at 

 the tip; their colour is silvery gray, clouded 

 with darker gray ; there is an almost square 

 costal blotch of the paler colour at the base 

 of the wing, and this is bordered below by a 

 black line ; the discoidal spots are also pale, 



