Volume Ii Part 14 (1/2)

Although some examples of the male have the outer and inner areas whitish, as in the female, they can be distinguished by their darker hind wings and the blackish central crescent thereon. A form of the female in which the large central patch of the fore wings is reddish brown has been named _rufescens_, Tutt; there may be males also of this form, but I have not seen any. In both s.e.xes, the brown patch extends nearer to the inner margin in some specimens than in others, and not infrequently there is a spur from the lower edge of the patch to this margin.

The caterpillar is green, with darker green lines, one along the middle of the back, and two along each side; the usual raised dots are green or brownish, and each emits a fine hair; the head is green and rather glossy.

It feeds on bilberry (_Vaccinium myrtillus_) in August and September.

(Plate 37, Fig. 1; after Hofmann.) The moth, which is out in June and July, hides by day among heather, bilberry, etc., especially where these plants overhang the edges of banks or trenches. It may be found locally in most of the southern counties of England from Kent to Cornwall; also in Berks, Stafford, and Leicester. It has been recorded from Suffolk, Worcester, Ches.h.i.+re (one at electric light, Chester, July, 1900), and North Wales. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and is not uncommon in Co. Kerry.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 34.

1. SMALL FANFOOT: _caterpillar_.

2. FANFOOT: _caterpillar_.

3. CLAY FAN-FOOT: _caterpillar_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2 Pl. 35.

1, 2. FAN-FOOT.

3. SMALL FAN-FOOT.

4. LESSER BELLE.

5. DOTTED FAN-FOOT.

6. CLAY FAN-FOOT.

7. COMMON FAN-FOOT.

8, 9. BEAUTIFUL SNOUT.

10. THE SNOUT.

11, 12. b.u.t.tONED SNOUT.

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THE SNOUT (_Hypena proboscidalis_).

This species (Plate 35, Fig. 10) is more generally distributed and common than any other of the group. Wherever nettles grow in quant.i.ty there we may expect to find this moth in its season, that is, in June and July. In favourable years there is sometimes a second flight, on a small scale, in the autumn; this was the case in 1905.

The caterpillar is green, with raised dots, from each of which a brownish hair arises; the line along the middle of the back is dark, and those along the sides are yellowish; the head is ochreous brown. It feeds on nettles in May and June. (Plate 37, Fig. 3; after Hofmann.)

In Amurland, and some other parts of eastern Asia, the species is represented by the brown-sprinkled yellowish form, var. _deleta_, Staudinger.

THE BLOXWORTH SNOUT (_Hypena obsitalis_).

The fore wings of this species are brown, crossed by a number of darker lines and a thicker angulated line beyond the middle; the latter is outwardly edged with pale brown, chiefly towards the costa; some white dots on the veins represent the submarginal line, and below the tips of the wings there are some black streaks.

One example of this form of the species, which is a variable one, was taken by the Rev. O. Pickard, Cambridge, in {94} September, 1884. He found it sitting on a door-jamb in his garden at Bloxworth, Dorset.

The specimen shown on Plate 36, Fig. 9, hails from Mogador.

Abroad, the range of the species includes southern Europe, Asia Minor, Egypt, North-West Africa, Madeira, and the Canaries.

THE b.u.t.tONED SNOUT (_Hypena rostralis_).

Two forms of this species are shown on Plate 35. The typical one is represented by Fig. 12, and Fig. 11 shows ab. _palpalis_, Tutt (?), Fabr.