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.
CATOCALA EPIONE.
Plate [XXIII]. fig. 2.
Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Nocturna. Family: Noctuidæ, Steph.
Genus. Catocala, Schrank. Blephara, Hübn. Phalæna (Noctua), Linn.