188 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



Far. 1. The Water Carpet (Cidaria suffu- 

 mata). The fore wings are very glossy, and 

 distinctly varied with two shades of brown. 



Far. 2. The Pitchy Carpet (Cidaria pi- 

 ceata). The fore wings are very glossy, and 

 of a uniform pitchy-brown, with a hind-mar- 

 ginal series of white spots. 



The CATERPILLAR, when full-grown, rests 

 in nearly a straight position, its feet as well 

 as claspers holding the food-plant ; the head 

 generally porrected and elevated. When dis- 

 turbed, it raises the fore part of its body, and 

 tucks in its head. The head is rather small ; 

 the body has a rough or wrinkled skin, and 

 both head and body emit short scattered 

 bristles, each bristle emanating from a scarcely 

 perceptible wart. All the segments are cen- 

 trally swollen, especially below, but without 

 dorsal humps. The colour of the head is pale 

 brown, freckled with black ; the colour of the 

 body is brown of various shades ; the dorsal is 

 decidedly darker than the ventral area, and 

 separated by a clear line of demarcation. The 

 tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth seg- 

 ments have the same pale hue above and 

 below ; the second, third, and fourth seg- 

 ments are marked by a median whitish dorsal 

 stripe ; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and 

 ninth with a dark V-shaped mark, pointing 

 towards the head, and its arms extending on 

 each side as far as the spiracles. Each 

 V-shaped mark contains a median dark mark, 

 somewhat shaped like an arrow-head, and 

 bordered with a pale margin. The belly is 

 traversed by gray, waved, interrupted, and 



not clearly-defined stripes, extending through- 

 out its entire length. The spiracles are in 

 tensely black. It feeds on the great hedge 

 bed-straw (Galium mollugo), and spins among 

 the leaves of its food-plant towards the middle 

 of June. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in April, 

 and occurs very commonly in England and 

 Ireland. (The scientific name is Cidaria 

 suffumata.} 



358. The Netted Carpet (Cidaria reticulata). 



358. THE NETTED CARPET. Thefore wings 

 are deep chocolate-brown, with numerous 

 creamy-white markings. All the wing-rays 

 are white, with the exception of a portion of 

 three or four of them, where they cross a 

 brown blotch near the middle of the wing, 

 and assume the same colour ; the rays, there- 

 fore, appear as white lines, and are connected 

 at the distal extremity by a hind-marginal 

 line of the same pale colour, and are inter- 

 sected by white bands ; the first of them is 

 narrow and obscure, and situated near the 

 base of the wing ; the second is broad and 

 semi-double, and projects a very conspicuous 

 angle below its middle, and directed towards 

 the hind margin ; the next is narrow ; it 

 commences on the costa, and curves to meet 

 the double band already described ; the next 

 also originates on the costa, and curving in a 

 contrary direction to the last, unites with the 

 broad semi-double bar near the inner margin. 

 The next, being the fifth, is broader ; it de- 

 scends straight from the costa half-way across 

 the wing, and then becomes scalloped, and 

 curves towards the inner margin, near the 

 anal angle. The sixth is double at its com- 

 mencement, enclosing a small triangular area 

 at the tip of the wing ; it is oblique at its 

 commencement, and becomes scalloped at 

 about half its length, and terminates near the 

 anal angle- These various markings give to 



