J24 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



transverse lines, which are alternately dark 

 and light; the hind wings are, as usual in 

 the genus, less clearly marked than the fore 

 Avings ; the discoidal spot is absent from all 

 the wings; the head and thorax are of the 

 same colour as the fore Avings, but the body 

 has a broad rust-coloured, or fulvous belt at 

 the base, which always fades, and often 

 entirely disappears, when the specimen has 

 been some years in a cabinet. 



Mr. Crewe says : " The CATERPILLAR 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, tLe ground-colour 

 pale blueish, 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 spar- 

 ingly studded with minute black dots : it is 

 full-fed from the middle of July to the middle 

 of August. It feeds inside the unopened 

 flower-buds of Clematis vitalla, commonly 

 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 presence 

 of the caterpillar may generally be detected 

 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. Bir- 

 chall says that it is common at Killarney, in 

 Ireland. Of course the range of its food-plant 

 rules the geographical distribution of the 

 species. (The scientific name is JEupithecia 

 isogrammata.} 



Obs. Haworth was the first author who 

 characterised this species, but he considered it 

 a variety of E. plumbeolata, 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 distinguished 

 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. Pug (EtqritJtecia pyymceata}. 



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 conspi- 

 cuous portion of the line is very short ; there 

 is a delicate black line on the extreme hind 

 margin ; very near the hind margin, and pa- 

 rallel therewith, is a waved but rather indis- 

 tinct pale line, which terminates in a white 

 spot at the anal angle; there is no distinct 

 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 coun- 

 ties, also near Glasgow and Ardrossan, in 

 Scotland, and in the counties Galway and 

 Wicklow, and at Portmarnock, in Ireland : it 

 flies bv day. (The scientific name is Eupithecia 

 pygmceata.} 



268. THE EDINBURGH PUG. The fore wings 

 are smoky gray inclining to brown, and adorned, 

 especially in the female, with darker trans- 

 verse markings in the disk, and a very conspi- 

 cuous transverse discoidal spot ; there are a 

 number, generally eight, short transverse 



