THE POPLAR GREY (_Acronycta megacephala_).
This moth is somewhat like that last noticed, but the fore wings are darker grey; the whitish orbicular mark is margined with black, and has a dark central dot. Sometimes the fore wings are clouded with blackish, and occasionally entirely suffused with black. In several species of _Acronycta_ newly disclosed specimens have a faint pinky tinge, but this is especially noticeable in the present species. (Plate 100, Fig. 6.)
The caterpillar is ochreous or grey brown, marked with blackish; a conspicuous character is a black-edged whitish or ochreous patch on ring ten; the hairs are whitish, those on the sides rather long. It feeds from July to September on the foliage of poplars. (Plate 101, Fig. 1).
This well-known cockney species is on the wing from late May to mid-August. Has been bred in September from a caterpillar taken in July, also in October from August larvæ. It is often abundant on poplars (especially the caterpillars) in London and suburbs. Common all over the southern parts of England, except perhaps in Devon and Cornwall; its range extends through Northern England to Ross in Scotland; and it is found in the south of Ireland.
The sexes of this black-clouded grey moth are shown on Plate 100, Figs. 8 and 9[female]. Except that the black clouding sometimes spreads over a greater area of the fore wings, there is little to note in aberration, at least in a general way. In 1906 a melanic specimen was bred from a chrysalis taken from alder in Delamere Forest, Cheshire; this is probably referable to var. _steinerti_, Caspari.
The caterpillar (Fig. 26) is black, marked with yellow; the { 194} curious clubbed hairs are its distinguishing feature. Although named after the alder, it feeds on the leaves of most trees and bushes in July and August, sometimes earlier or later. The moth is out in May and June, but although an occasional specimen has been taken at sugar or light, once resting on nettles, it is rarely met with. Caterpillars also are not by any means common, and any one who may obtain even a single example in a season may congratulate himself on a good find. They are perhaps most frequent in the Hampshire (New Forest) district and some of the Sussex woodlands, but have occurred now and then in almost every county of England up to Yorkshire; also in Glamorganshire, Carmarthenshire, and at Trefriw in Wales. The only Irish locality is Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow. The range abroad extends to Armenia, Amurland, and Japan.