In the open the caterpillar feeds upon the black lichens growing on rocks, etc., by the sea; also upon Dutch clover (_Trifolium repens_), kidney vetch (_Anthyllis vulneraria_), and bird's-foot trefoil (_Lotus corniculatus_).
This species was not known to occur in any part of the British Isles until August, 1861, when the late Mr. C. G. Barrett took four specimens on the Hill of Howth in Ireland (_vide Ent. Annual_, 1862, p. 106). A large number were subsequently captured or reared from caterpillars obtained in the same locality by others. Kane ("Cat. Lep. Ireland") remarks that the colony flourished at Howth for many years, but that the species seemingly perished in the severe winters of 1878 or 1879, and unless a specimen taken in 1890 was this species, has not since been seen there. The only other Irish locality from which it has been recorded (August, 1866) is on the coast near Waterford. Torquay, where the species was first observed in 1864 is now a noted locality, and it is said to occur in certain spots along the coast to Babbicombe. Other localities in Devon are Dartmouth, Torcross, and Bolt Head. Barrett found the species rarely in two places by the sea in South Pembrokeshire, and mentions Rye in Sussex, and Romney Marsh in Kent, as localities where specimens have occurred.
Mr. J. Walker informs me that the moths fly at dusk, and { 187} that they all seem to get active at almost the same moment, and settle again in the same way at the end of their first flight, which lasts about half an hour. After dark the rays of an acetylene lamp directed downwards into the bushes will attract them from their retreat. Occasionally they visit "sugar."
Abroad this is a southern species, but its range extends to Western Germany, the Tyrol, Switzerland, and South Hungary, as well as to England; also to Asia Minor.
THE ORANGE FOOTMAN (_Lithosia sororcula_).
This moth is orange yellow on the fore wings, and a paler shade of the same colour on the hind wings. Except that the tint is brighter in some specimens and darker in others, there is nothing to mention in the way of aberration. (Plate 99, Figs. 6, 7.)
The caterpillar is white on the back with five black stripes, the outer ones broader than the others; all these stripes are broken up by brownish patches, and they fail to show at all on the eighth ring, which, therefore, is conspicuously white; the sides are smoky grey marked with white on the second and third rings; the warts are reddish, bearing smoky grey hairs. It may be found from July to September on the lichens growing on the trunks of oak trees. The moth does not appear until the following May or June, when it may be beaten from branches. Not uncommon in the woods, chiefly oak, of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, and Dorset; it also occurs in Cambridgeshire and Sussex. In Berkshire and Bucks it is fairly common, but seems to affect the beech woods in those counties. Recorded from Ireland by Birchall, who stated that it was abundant at Killarney.