Varies considerably in the ground colour and in the extent of the black speckling.
"The larva is extremely variable. Its usual colour is pale brown with a white dorsal line and several dark lines on each side.
{ 14}"Young larvæ closely resemble their food-plant in colour, and occasionally this is persistent throughout life; in fact the larva is very variable. Feeds on various grasses."[13]
The perfect insect first appears about January, and continues in increasing numbers until the middle or end of April. It is often met with at sugar.
This species is of almost universal distribution, having occurred in Australia, Java, India, Europe, and North and South America. In England it is regarded as a great rarity.
"Antennæ in male strongly bipectinated throughout. Thorax and abdomen smooth."--(Meyrick.)
This genus is very closely allied to _Leucania_. It appears to be exclusively limited to New Zealand, where it is represented by two conspicuous species. Probably when the extensive mountainous regions of the country have been more fully explored by entomologists other species will be discovered.
A single specimen of this interesting species was captured by Mr. C. W. Palmer, on Mount Arthur at an elevation of about 4,400 feet.
The expansion of the wings is 1½ inches. The fore-wings are dull blackish-brown, _darker near the middle; there is a rather oblique, white, longitudinal stripe below the middle from about one-eighth to one-third; above this there is a very conspicuous, large, elongate white mark; this mark has a semicircular indentation above, probably representing the orbicular; another indentation towards the termen, probably representing the reniform, and below this it emits two short teeth-like projections_; beyond these markings the ground colour becomes paler, and is traversed by an obscure, jagged, transverse line; the cilia are grey. The hind-wings are pale grey; the cilia are also grey. The body is dark brownish-black. The pectinations of the antennæ of this insect are slightly shorter than those in _Ichneutica ceraunias_.
The type specimen is slightly damaged; but the species is so evidently distinct that I feel no hesitation in describing it.
(_Ichneutica ceraunias_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 13.)