Lepidoptera The Drinker Moth – Odonestis Potatoria
The popular name of this species is applied on account of a peculiar feature of the larva, which sucks up the dewdrop that lies on its food plant.
The colour of the male is tawny and brown, with a reddish tinge; that of the female is yellow. The front wing has an oblique dark bar passing from the apex to the middle of the inner margin; also two white spots-one in the middle of the wing, and the other between it and the costal margin.
The caterpillar is dark bluish grey above, and has a line of orange spots on each side. Along the spiracles are oblique orange streaks, and a series of tufts of white hair. It feeds on the annual meadow-grass (Poa annua), and several other grasses. It is a hybernator, commencing its caterpillar state in the autumn, and reaching its full dimensions about the end of the following May.
The moth flies during July and August.