The perfect insect appears in October, December, and January. Mr. Fereday states that it was formerly very common at blossoms.
Genus 5.—LEUCANIA, Ochs.
"Head rough-scaled; eyes hairy. Antennæ in male ciliated. Thorax with or without slight anterior crest. Abdomen not crested.
"A very large cosmopolitan genus, equally common everywhere; it is a development of Melanchra, to which some of the New Zealand species give such a complete transition that a line of demarcation can hardly be drawn. The larvæ all feed on Gramineæ."—(Meyrick.)
We have seventeen species.
LEUCANIA GRISEIPENNIS, Feld.
(Mamestra griseipennis, Feld., pl. cix. 22. Chera virescens, Butl., Cist. Ent. ii. 489. Spælotis inconstans, ib. 545; Leucania moderata, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 7 (nec Walk.). Leucania griseipennis, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xx. 44.)
(Plate [IV]., fig. 8.)
This species has occurred at Wellington in the North Island. In the South Island it has been taken at Mount Arthur, Lake Coleridge, Rakaia, Akaroa, and Lake Guyon.
The expansion of the wings is 1½ inches. The fore-wings are dull greenish-grey; there are two obscure blackish transverse lines near the base and several dull white dots; a very conspicuous transverse curved black shade near the middle, followed by an extremely jagged dull white transverse line, another less jagged transverse line near the termen; the orbicular is oval, pale, edged with black; the reniform and claviform are also pale but inconspicuous; the cilia are tinged with brown. The hind-wings are grey with the cilia wholly white.