This species has been taken in the North Island at Napier and Wellington.
The expansion of the wings is 1½ inches. The fore-wings are greenish-grey, with the markings yellow margined with black; the hind-wings are dark grey with a terminal series of small yellow spots. The sides of the abdomen are bright crimson.
This insect is very closely allied to Melanchra pictula, but the absence of the white reniform spot and the grey hind-wings, will at once distinguish it from that species.
The perfect insect appears in May and June. It is decidedly rare.
MELANCHRA MEROPE, n. sp.
(Plate [V]., fig. 2.)
A single specimen of this handsome insect was taken in the Wellington Botanical Gardens in October, 1887.
The expansion of the wings is nearly two inches. The fore-wings are rich chocolate-brown, with yellow markings outlined in very deep brown; there is a rather broad broken transverse line near the base; a yellow blotch containing a slender curved brown line, on the dorsum at about one-fourth, forming the end of another extremely broken transverse line; the reniform is large, finely outlined with brown towards the base of the wing and half filled in with yellow towards the termen; between the reniform and the dorsum there is a jagged yellow transverse line; there is a terminal series of dark brown streaks and yellow spots, and the termen itself is scalloped; the cilia are dark brown. The hind-wings are pale brown, pinkish tinged; there is an obscure terminal line; the cilia are brownish-pink. The head and thorax are dark brown, the abdomen pale brown, with the crests darker.
MELANCHRA PELISTIS, Meyr.
(Mamestra pelistis, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 20.)