188 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



Far. 1 . The Water Carpet ( Cidaria su/u- 

 mata). The fore wings are very glossy, and 

 distinctly varied with two shades of brown. 



Var. 2. The Pitchy Carpet {Cidaria pii-e- 

 ata}. The fore wings are very glossy, and of a 

 uniform pitchy-brown, with a hind-marginal 

 series of white spots. 



The CATEBPILLAK, 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 Y-shaped mark, pointing 

 towards the head, and its arms extending on 

 each side as far as ihe spiracles. Each 

 Y-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 molhtgo], 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 



358. The Netted Carpet (Cidaria reticulatn}. 



358. THE NETTED CARPET. The fore 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 bur 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 

 uual 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 



