This species varies a little in the depth of the ground colour, but not otherwise.
The perfect insect appears in December, January and February. It frequents dense forest, and is generally disturbed from amongst ferns and undergrowth.
Genus 8.—IPANA, Walk.
"Face roughly haired. Antennæ in male simple, shortly ciliated. Palpi as in Declana. Thorax densely hairy above and beneath, with slight median crest. Abdomen in male elongate. Femora densely hairy; posterior tibiæ in male short and much swollen, furnished on inner side with very large dense tuft of hairs. Fore-wings in male without fovea; veins 10 and 11 separate."—(Meyrick).
We have one species in New Zealand.
IPANA LEPTOMERA, Walk.
(Ipana leptomera, Walk., Noct. 1662.)
(Plate [X]., figs. 29, 31, and 31A ♂ varieties, 30 ♀.)
This species is common in the neighbourhood of Wellington, and I expect generally distributed throughout New Zealand; but as there appears to have been some confusion in Mr. Meyrick's papers between it and the female of Declana junctilinea, I am unable to assign the localities there mentioned to either of the species.
The expansion of the wings of the male is 1½ inches, of the female 1⅜ inches. The fore-wings of the male are uniform pale brownish-ochreous, generally with two transverse series of minute darker brown dots parallel to the termen, and two or three similar dots near the middle of the wing. There is a series of very small parallel brown lines on the costa. The hind-wings are greyish-brown with two very deep indentations in the termen. The female has the fore-wings pale grey, and the hind-wings darker grey; the markings and outline resemble the male.