NOCTUA MELICERTA. Alis anticis variegatis, posticis nigris, fasciâ
maculisque tribus marginalibus albis. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc. 6 lin.)
SYN. Phalæna (Noctua) Melicerta, _Drury, Append. v._ 2. _Cramer, tab._
62. _fig._ C. D.?
Noctua mercatoria, _Fab. Ent. Syst._ III. 2. _p._ 62. _No_. 175.?
_Gmelin, Linn., S. N._ 2544. 1039.
Noctua tigrina, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 2. _p._ 40. _No._ 105. _Oliv.
Enc. Méth._ 8. 277. 131.
Noctua vulpina, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ III. 2. _p._ 39. _No._ 102.
Phalæna Melicene, _Cram. tab._ 323. _fig._ C. D.
HABITAT: India, Bombay (_Drury_).
_Upper Side._ Antennæ filiform. Tongue small and spiral. Thorax and
abdomen light brown. Anterior wings light greyish brown, and, when held
in some particular directions, having a hue like mother-of-pearl. Several
irregular bars, of a deeper brown, cross the wings, and the external
margin is bordered with pale purple or pearl colour. Posterior wings dark
liver-coloured, grey-brown at the base, and hairy. In the middle is a
broad bar, of purplish white, running across the wing. On the external
edge are three white square spots. The anterior wings are a little
dentated; the inferior ones entire.
_Under Side._ Palpi remarkably long and pointed. Anterior wings dark
brown; the external edge being purplish grey, with a whitish separated
bar, running from the middle of the anterior edge to the interior angle.
Posterior wings light greyish brown, palest at the base, and grey at the
external edge, having a dark spot at the anal angle, and a smaller faint
one near the shoulders; with several indented lines crossing the wings in
different places.
Fabricius appears to have described this insect in his Entomologia
Systematica, under three different names. It probably forms the type of a
distinct subgenus in the family Noctuidæ.
{43}CATOCALA EPIONE.
Plate XXIII. fig. 2.