84 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



transver.se lines, which are alternately dark 

 and light ; the hind wings are, as usual in 

 the genus, less clearly marked than the fore 

 wings ; the discoidal spot is absent from all 

 the wings ; the head and thorax are of the 

 same colour as the fore wings, but the body 

 has a broad rust-coloured, or fulvous belt at 

 the base, which always fades, and often en- 

 tirely disappears, when the specimen has been 

 some years in a cabinet. 



Mr. Crewe says : " The CATERPILLAK 

 seems to be little known, and has not, I 

 think, ever been described. I have, however, 

 taken it in plenty wherever its food-plant 

 occurs: it is very short and stumpy, the 

 ground-colour pale blueisb, or yellowish green, 

 with three horizontal dorsal stripes of a darker 

 shade ; these stripes are often very indistinct, 

 and sometimes altogether wanting; the head 

 is dusky, spotted with olive, and the body 

 sparingly spudded with minute black dots : it 

 is full-fed from the middle of July to the 

 middle of August. It feeds inside the un- 

 opened flower-buds of Clematis vitalba, com- 

 monly known as the Traveller's Joy. When 

 nearly full-fed it frequently feeds among the 

 stamens of the expanded flower, and may then 

 be beaten into an umbrella : it also feeds on 

 the common white garden clematis. The pre- 

 sence of the caterpillar may generally be de- 

 tected by the blackened appearance of the 

 flower-buds. When it has eaten the inside 

 of one bud, it comes out and bores into a 

 fresh one : I have frequently seen it busily 

 engaged in this operation. The CHRYSALIS is 

 enclosed in a very tightly-constructed earthen 

 cocoon ; the thorax and wing-cases are green, 

 and the body red." 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, 

 and the beginning of July, and is abundant 

 among Clematis vitalba: it flies about with 

 extreme rapidity in the hot sunshine, and it 

 is Almost invariably wasted when caught. It 

 occurs in many of our English counties, and 

 Mr. Birchall says that it is common at Kil- 

 larney, in Ireland. Of course the range of its 

 food-plant rules the geographical distribution 

 of the species. (The scientific name is Eupi- 

 thecia i^grammata.) 



Obs. Haworth was the first author who 

 characterised this species, but he considered 

 it a variety of E. piumbeolata, the insect last 

 described, and therefore did not name it. Mr. 

 Doubleday very early saw that this was an 

 error, and gave it the name of the distin- 

 guished entomologist who discovered it, 

 namely, E. Haworthiata ; it has, however, 

 since been identified as the E. isogrammata 

 of Treitschke, and, in accordance with the 

 rule of priority, we must retain that name. 



267. The Marsh Png (Eupithecia pygm&ata). 



267. THE MARSH PUG. The fore wings 

 are brownish gray, with numerous paler and 

 darker closely approximate waved transverse 

 lines ; and it is these which communicate the 

 general tint to the wing ; several of the pale 

 lines become white in the costal margin, and 

 are then more conspicuous, but this more 

 conspicuous portion of the line is very short ; 

 there is a delicate black line on the extreme 

 hind margin ; very near the hind margin, 

 and parallel therewith, is a waved bt rather 

 indistinct pale line, which terminates in a 

 white spot at the anal angle ; there is no dis- 

 tinct discoidal spot, and, indeed, scarcely a 

 trace of one: the hind wings, head, thorax, 

 and body are nearly of the same colour as the 

 fore wings : it is altogether an extremely 

 plain-looking insect. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in June, 

 but is not very common; it has been taken 

 in both the northern and southern English 

 counties, also near Glasgow and Ardrossan, 

 in Scotland, and in the counties Galway and 

 Wicklow, and at Portmarnock, in Ireland : 

 it flies by day. (The scientific name is Eupi- 

 thecia pygmceata.) 



268. THE EDINBURGH PUG. The fore 

 wings are smoky gray inclining to brown, and 

 adorned, especially in the female, with darker 

 transverse markings in the disk, and a very 

 conspicuous transverse discoidal spot; there 

 area number, generally eight, short transverse 



