136 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



with brown, and having a central line of 

 the same colour running the whole length ; 

 the body is minutely studded with tubercles 

 and very short hairs ; it has a wrinkled 

 appearance. 



" Var. 2. The ground colour is grass or 

 yellowish green. The dorsal spots are brown, 

 and perfectly lozenge-shaped, ceasing on the 

 posterior segments ; the sub-dorsal lines are 

 deeper brown than the dorsal spots, and are 

 interrupted at the segmental divisions ; the 

 spiracular line is yellowish, and bordered on 

 the lower side with brown. 



" Var. 3. Ground colour various shades of 

 green. All the markings, except the sub- 

 dorsal lines, faint or altogether wanting. 



" Var. 4. Whole body, with the exception 

 of the posterior dorsal segments, suffused with 

 a deep rich chocolate brown ; the posterior 

 dorsal segments are canary-yellow, with a 

 central pale brown line. On every other 

 dorsal segment are two yellow spots ; on each 

 side are two yellow waved lines, enclosing a 

 brown line. It feeds in September and 

 throughout October on the flowers of the 

 golden rod (Solidago virgaurea). 



" In confinement it will eat various species 

 of Michaelmas daisy. It has also, I believe, 

 been beaten from the flowers of ragwort ; 

 but I have not myself met with it on anything 

 but, Solidago virgaurea. The CHRYSALIS, which 

 is enclosed in an earthen cocoon, is large and 

 thick, and has the thorax and abdomen 

 yellow, the latter deeply suffused with blood 

 red. The wing-cases are more or less tinged 

 with green." 



The MOTH appears in July and August, and 

 has been taken in Wales and in the county 

 Wicklow in Ireland, but I know of no recent 

 captures. (The scientific name is Eupithecia 

 expallidata.) 



Obs. M. Guen6e seems to doubt whether 

 it is distinct from the next species, but I 

 confess I am unable to see any great similarity 

 between them, and the discovery of the cater- 

 pillar so carefully characterised by Mr. Crewe 

 seems to settle the question. 



289. THE WORMWOOD PUG. The fore wings 

 " Vo brown gray, the middle of the wing being 



suffused with a most delicate tinge of mother- 

 of-pearl, which is due to the presence of 

 numberless minute opalescent scales ; between 

 the costal and the sub-costal wing-rays are 

 several transverse dark brown markings ; the 

 most conspicuous of these is situated beyond 

 the discoidal spot (which is transverse and 

 very conspicuous), and is bordered on the 

 outside by a gray, almost white marking, of 

 nearly the same size and shape ; intervening 

 between the other dark costal markings are 

 less distinct pale gray markings ; between 

 the base of the wing and the discoidal spot is 

 a trans verse series of three double black spots, 

 all of them on the wing-rays ; beyond the 

 discoidal spot is an oblique transverse series of 

 compound spots, also on the wing-rays ; each 

 of them is gray in the middle and black on 

 the outsides, and though the series of com- 

 pound spots is transverse, each individual 

 spot is longitudinal ; between this series and 

 the hind margin is a series of white spots, for 

 the most part imperfect and obscure, but the 

 one nearest the anal angle is always larger 

 and more conspicuous than the others, and 

 always double or nearly double ; there is a 

 pale line on the extreme hind margin, and 

 another along the middle of the fringe ; the 

 hind wings are paler, and have a darker hind 

 margin and discoidal spot, and a still darker 

 marginal line ; the head, thorax, and body are 

 brown ; the collar pale ; the base of the body 

 also pale, but immediately followed by a 

 dark belt ; there is a medio-dorsal series of 

 minute crests on the body, all of which are 

 tipped with white. 



Mr. Crewe has written thus of the CATER- 

 PILLAR : " It would be impossible to give an 

 accurate description of the almost endless 

 varieties of this most variable caterpillar; they 

 run so closely into each other that it would 

 be an almost Herculean task to separate them. 

 The ground colour is either deep rose colour, 

 or dirty reddish-brown, with a series of 

 reddish lozenge-shaped spots down the contre 

 of the back, generally becoming faint or con- 

 fluent towards the head or tail ; in the green 

 variety these spots are often entirely wanting j 

 on each side is a number of narrow slanting 



