So??ie apparently new Species and Forms of Noctuidae 211 



showing the same subspecific hind wing development as in the fore- 

 going forms, but as it appears to me almost certain that semialba 

 Wlkr. and grisea Moore are forms of the same species I have refrained 

 from giving a separate name to this race, preferring to regard all seven 

 specimens as forms of one subspecies, which must in that case stand 

 as semialba fasciimargo. It is by no means impossible that variegata 

 Hampson, and subsp. manuselensis A. E. Prout, will ultimately have 

 to sink as aberrations of semialba and semialba fasciimargo. 



21. Stictoptera melancholica sp. nov. 

 $ , 44 — 46 mm. 



Head and palpus ochreous-brown shaded with dark-brown ; tegulae 

 ochreous-brown, with a broad interrupted dark line at middle, 

 bordered (towards tips) by a fine dark line ; thorax fuscous-brown ; 

 abdomen brownish-grey, paler beneath ; pectus and legs pale greyish- 

 brown, the legs broadly banded with fuscous. 



Fore wing nearly as in melanistis Hmpsn., ab. 2, but the dark 

 shades not quite so deep and glossy, the subterminal rufous suffusion 

 scarcely noticeable and the areas between medial and postmedial lines 

 and distally to postmedial line, and a patch on tornal half of termen 

 conspicuously pale ; medial line scarcely waved, slightly oblique from 

 three-sevenths costa to M, thence erect to hindmargin at three-fifths ; 

 postmedial line slightly more oblique from costa to E 2 than in 

 melanistis ; three blackish spots distally to subterminal line between 

 M 1 and hindmargin. 



Hind wing with hyaline area rather less clear than in melanistis ; 

 the border broader (two-fifths length of wing in melancholica ; two- 

 sevenths in melanistis), more suffused on proximal side, less glossy 

 black ; discal spot obsolescent. 



Underside nearly as in melanistis, but the fore wing without the 

 hyaline medial patch behind M, and with anterior half of postmedial 

 line rather more oblique ; hind wing differing as above. 



Manusela, 6,000 feet, October to December, 1919, two S $ . 



Possibly a form of melanistis Hampson (which also occurs in 

 Central Ceram) from which it seems indistinguishable by the genitalia, 

 but is distinguished by the shorter, less elongate fore wing, the slightly 

 smaller hind wing and the distinctly broader, more diffused dark 

 border of hind wing. 



