182 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



352. The Short-cloak Carpet (Oidaria picata). 



352. THE SHORT-CLOAK CARPET. The palpi 

 are short, and the antennae simple in both 

 sexes ; the fore wings are dark olive-green, 

 from the base to beyond the middle, and this 

 dark area is followed by a white band into 

 the middle of which the dark area projects a 

 double angle ; the hind margin is olive-green 

 interrupted with white lunules, and a white 

 blotch near the tip : the hind wings are 

 smoky-gray, with transverse whitish mark- 

 ings : the head and thorax are nearly of the 

 same colour as the fore wings. 



An anonymous writer in the Entomologist's 

 Weekly Intelligencer, informs us that the 

 ground colour of the CATERPILLAR is a 

 pale stone-colour, with the segmental divi- 

 sions reddish ; there is no dorsal line, but 

 a dark blackish patch, on each segment, 

 increasing in size and depth of tint up to the 

 ninth, where it attains its maximum ; there 

 are none of these patches on the last four 

 segments ; the sub-dorsal stripe is dusky, 

 very much freckled and diffused, and forming 

 four small dark dots at the corners of the 

 dorsal patches; just above the spiracles is 

 an irregular dusky stripe, enclosing a thin 

 waved line of the ground colour, bordered 

 with black : the spiracles are black ; the 

 belly is marked on each side at the segmental 

 divisions with groups of small black spots. 

 In confinement it will feed on chick-weed, 

 and thrives well. 



This MOTH, which appears to belong to the 

 genus Melanippe rather than to Cidaria, is 

 taken not unfrequently in the south of Eng- 

 land in June. I have found it in Darenth 

 and Birch- woods, in Kent, but I have no 

 record of its occurrence in the north of 

 England, in Scotland, or in Ireland. (The 

 scientific name is Cidaria picata.) 



353. THE HAZEL CARPET. The palpi are 

 pointed, porrected, and rather long ; the 

 antennae are simple in both sexes ; the fore 

 wings are blunt at the tip ; they have an 

 olive-brown blotch at the base, and an olive- 

 brown median band, the margins of which are 

 much angled and very irregular ; both the 

 blotch and the band are bordered with a pure 

 white line ; between the blotch and the band 

 is an angulated pale brown bar, and beyond 

 the band, is another bar of the same colour, 

 beyond which is a zigzag white line, and 

 again, beyond this are several white crescents 

 almost on the hind margin; the median band 

 is very frequently interrupted in the middle, 

 the discoidal spot being in the upper division; 

 the hind wings are gray, with a transverse 

 median white line and a discoidal spot in the 

 basal area; the head and thorax have the 

 same colour as the fore wings, the body the 

 same colour as the hind wings. 



There are two so-called species of this moth 

 united under the name corylata. They are 

 now generally considered varieties. 



Var. 1. The Broken-barred Carpet (Cidaria 

 corylata). The fore wings have a very dis- 

 tinct basal blotch and median band. 



Var. 2. The White-blotched Carpet (Ci- 

 daria albo-crenata). The fore wings are 

 marked very confusedly with white. 



An anonymous but perfectly trustworthy 

 writer in the Entomologist's Weekly Intelli- 

 gencerwriies thus respecting the CATERPILLAR 

 of this species : " Two or three caterpillars, 



