168 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



in Ireland. (The scientific name is Anticlea 

 berberata. ) 



W 



333. The Red Carpet (Coremia munitata). 



333. THE RED CARPET. The antennae of 

 the male are strongly pectinated more than 

 half their length ; the tips are simple ; the 

 fore wings are slightly falcate ; they have a 

 reddish blotch at the base, then a narrow gray 

 band, then a broad reddish band with darker 

 margins, and a long discoidal spot of the same 

 darker 'tint, and delicately margined with 

 white ; the inner margin of this band is con- 

 cave, the outer sinuous ; lastly, there is a 

 broad gray marginal band traversed through- 

 out by a slender waved white line, within 

 which white line the marginal band is whitish- 

 gray, and outside the white line pinkish-gray ; 

 at the extreme tip of the wing is an oblique 

 streak, above which the gray tint is whiter, 

 below it redder and darker : the hind wings 

 are dingy-gray, with waved transverse mark- 

 ings both lighter and darker; the head, thorax, 

 and body are dingy-gray. 



The Rev. Joseph Greene has reared this 

 moth from the egg, which was hatched in 

 June; the young CATERPILLARS fed on ground- 

 sel during the autumn ; they grew very slowly; 

 before winter they left off eating altogether, 

 but in early spring again ate the groundsel, 

 and were full-fed before the end of March. 

 The caterpillar when full fed is an inch in 

 length, the ground colour dull green, or 

 brown, but very variable ; the segments 

 pink or flesh-coloured ; the body is slightly 

 sprinkled with black dots, with two very 

 distinct blotches on the sixth and seventh 

 segments, the latter being the largest. It spins 

 up in moss, and turns to a brown CHRYSALIS. 



The MOTH appears in June and July, and 

 seems to be a northern insect ; it has been 

 taken most abundantly in Orkney. I have 

 seen in the boxes of a collector who had sum- 

 mered in Orkney, hundreds of this species, 



but so bad was their condition, that I could 

 not select a dozen worth preserving ; there 

 are several localities in Scotland, and some 

 in the northern counties of England. Mr. 

 Birchall also reports it as taken by Mr. 

 Bristow at Belfast (The scientific name is 

 Coremia munitata.) 



334. The Flame Carpet (Coremia propugnata). 



334. THE FLAME CARPET. The antennae 

 of the male are slightly pectinated ; the fore 

 wings have a chocolate blotch at the base, 

 then a pale gray band almost white, then a 

 chocolate band barred transversely with two 

 shades, and including an elongate white dis- 

 coidal spot; this band is concave on its inner, 

 and doubly angled on its outer margin ; 

 lastly, there is a broad gray marginal band 

 traversed through half its length by a deli- 

 cate waved white line ; the hind wings are 

 dingy- gray, with transverse markings ; the 

 head, thorax, and body are gray, the margins 

 of the segments chocolate-brown. 



The CATERPILLAR is figured in Sepp's ex- 

 quisitely beautiful work on Dutch Lepidop- 

 tera ; it is represented feeding on a species 

 of cabbage (Brassica). The ground colour is 

 a reddish-gray, with a medio-dorsal series of 

 triangular markings of a rosy-pink, and a 

 lateral stripe in the region of the spiracles of 

 a dingy -yellow. 



The MOTH flies in May and June, and again 

 in August, and occurs in most of our English 

 and some of our Scotch counties. Mr. Birchall 

 found it abundant at Powerscourt, in Ireland. 

 (The scientific name is Coremia propugnata.} 



335. The Red Twin-spot Carpet (Coremia ferrugata). 

 335. THE RED TWIN-SPOT CARPET. The 



