The moth is out in July and part of August, and may be disturbed in the daytime from its resting-place among heather and low herbage. It is on the wing in the dusk of the evening, and when the weather is favourable, flies freely. As it has a weakness for sweets, it should be looked for at night, by the aid of a lantern, on the flowers of knapweed and thistle. It chiefly affects heaths, but it is also found in woods, and on sandhills by the sea, as in Norfolk. A local species, but usually to be more or less frequently met with in all the eastern { 184} and southern counties, and in some of the midland. Rare in Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, and York. Only doubtfully recorded from Scotland. In Ireland it is widely distributed, and, according to Kane, not uncommon where it occurs.
THE NORTHERN FOOTMAN (_Lithosia sericea_).
Gregson named and described this insect in 1860, and in the following year Guenée described it as _L. molybdeola_. It seems to be peculiar to England; and only occurs on the mosses of Lancashire and Cheshire. The fore wings are somewhat narrower and darker in colour than those of the Scarce Footman; and the hind wings are suffused, to a greater or lesser extent, with dark grey. Some entomologists maintain that this is probably only a small form of _L. complana_. According to Mr. Pierce it cannot be specifically separated from that species or from _L. pygmæola_ by the genitalia, the usual test in such matters. Prout, however, has stated that Speyer, in 1867, pointed out structural differences, not only in the shape of the wings, but also in the size of the costal tuft of scales on the underside of the fore wings. It should be added that there does not seem to be any material difference between the caterpillar of _complana_ and that of _sericea_. Anyway, the question of form or species may here be left open. The fact of the Northern, or Gregson's, Footman being an exclusive British production invests the insect with an importance greatly above that attaching to the majority of our moths. The moth is depicted on Plate 97, Fig. 8.
THE PIGMY FOOTMAN (_Lithosia lutarella_).
Ochreous white, sometimes tinged with greyish, or with yellowish; hind wings clouded with greyish on the front area. Female almost always smaller than the male. The fore wings { 185} vary a good deal in the matter of colour, the extremes being yellow and dark grey. (Plate 99, Figs. 3, 4.)