GEOMETERS. 



139. The Great Oak Beauty (Boarmia roboraria). 



139. THE GREAT OAK BEAUTY. The an- 

 tennae of the male are strongly pectinated, 

 those of the female simple : the wings are 

 gray, powdered with minute black spots, and 

 having also numerous black or dark-brown 

 markings ; the most conspicuous of these are 

 four black spots on the costal margin of the 

 fore wings, each of which, except the first, 

 seems to originate an irregular, indistinct, and 

 interrupted transverse black line ; the first 

 and second of these lines are wide apart at 

 their commencement on the costal margin, but 

 almost meet on the inner margin ; the second 

 is composed of a number of sharp angles; the 

 third is waved or scalloped, and beyond it is 

 a similarly-shaped paler line ; there is a row 

 of crescent-shaped black spots along the hind 

 margin ; near the middle of the wing is a 

 crescent- shaped black spot, often very in- 

 distinct ; the hind wings are marked very 

 much as the fore wings, but rather less dis- 

 tinctly : first, there is an oblique baud across 

 the wing near its base, then a crescent-shaped 

 black spot, then a zigzag black line, then a 

 slightly-waved black line, and ,lastly, a very 

 distinct row of crescent-shaped black spots on 

 the scalloped hind margin : the head, thorax, 

 and body are gray. 



The CATERPILLAR is very large, and resem- 

 bles a piece of stick ; there is a rather darker 

 medico-dorsal stripe, and a rather paler lateral 

 stripe ; the space between them is varied with 

 black and white ; there are two rather small 

 humps on the sides of the sixth segment, and 

 one underneath the seventh segment : it feeds 

 only on oak. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, and 

 has been taken in the New Forest, Hampshire ; 

 in Tilgate Forest, Sussex; in Richmond Park, 

 Surrey ; in Dorsetshire ; in Birchwood, Kent:, 

 in Epping Forest, Essex ; and is also reported 

 from Berkshire, Worcestershire, Lancashii e, 

 Yorkshire, and Ireland. The chrysalis used 

 formerly to be found in some abundance by 

 di ggi n g round the trunks of oak trees in Rich- 

 mond Park, but latterly it has been rare in 

 that locality. (The scientific name is Boarmia 

 roboraria.) 



140. The Pale Oak Beauty (Boarmia consortaria). 



140. THE PALE OAK BEAUTY. The an- 

 tennae of the male are slightly pectinated, 

 those of the female simple : all the wings are 

 gray, powdered with minute black specks ; 

 the base of the fore wings, and a narrow- 

 waved band across the middle of all the wings, 

 dingy yellow brown ; there is a zigzag or 

 scalloped black line near the hind margin of 

 all the wings, accompanied exteriorly by a 

 paler line of exactly similar shape; in the 

 middle of the hind wings is a crescent-shaped 

 mark, gray in the middle: the head, thorax, 

 and body are gray. 



The CATERPILLAR is greenish-gray, with a 

 darker medio- dorsal stripe, and a rather paler 

 lateral stripe ; there are two small humps on 

 the back of the sixth segment, and two small 

 black warts on the twelfth segment ; it feeds 

 on oak. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, anc 

 has been taken in the NewForest,Hampshire ; 

 at Pembury, in Sussex; at Darvent, inKent ; 

 in. Essex ; and near Stowruarket, in Suffolk ; 

 nut neither in the north of England, in Scot- 

 land, nor in Ireland. (The scientific name is 

 Boarmia consortaria.} 



M 5 



