Description compiled from that of Mr. Meyrick. Figured by Mr. W. B. Hudson from a specimen in Mr. Fereday's collection.
MELANCHRA OMOPLACA, Meyr.
(Mamestra omoplaca, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 24.)
(Plate [V]., fig. 13.)
This species has occurred in the South Island at Lake Coleridge and Rakaia.
The expansion of the wings is about 1½ inches. The fore-wings are dark reddish-brown, there is a short black median streak from the base, margined above with ochreous-white; the space between this and the costa is marked with suffused ochreous-whitish lines; in one specimen a blackish suffusion extending from base of the dorsum obliquely to orbicular and reniform, the space between this and the subterminal line is suffused with pale whitish-ochreous; the orbicular and reniform are blackish-fuscous, black-margined, and connected by a blackish-fuscous spot; the orbicular is large, roundish; the reniform with its outer edge white; the claviform is small, suboval, blackish-fuscous; the transverse lines are indistinct; the subterminal is obscurely paler or hardly traceable, with two somewhat acute dentations below the middle; the terminal space is mixed with blackish-fuscous; the cilia are reddish-fuscous mixed with blackish. The hind-wings are fuscous-grey; the cilia grey-whitish, with a grey line.
The perfect insect appears in December, February, and March.
Description compiled from that of Mr. Meyrick. Figured by Mr. W. B. Hudson from a specimen in Mr. Fereday's collection.
MELANCHRA ALCYONE, n. sp.
(Plate [V]., fig. 14 ♂.)