lONTHA IDA, A NEW PHILIPPINE NOCTUID 
By Charles S. Banks ^ 
{From the Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, University 
of the Philippines, Los Banos) 
ONE PLATE 
LEPIDOPTERA : HETEROCERA 
NOCTUID^ 
QUADRIFIN^ 2 
Genus lONTHA Doubleday ^ 
lontha ida sp. nov. 
Mcde . — Head dark brown ; eyes nearly black ; apical segment of 
palpus ringed with ochraceous scales at middle, antennae reddish ; 
body and wings dorsad and ventrad a faded, dark, yellowish 
brown, the wings above darker apicad and highly bronze-irides- 
cent; a darker reniform, median, subcostal spot on fore wing 
circumscribed by a very few heliotrope scales and punctured 
centrad by one or two ochraceous scales; a faint brown zigzag 
line connects it with caudal margin, at which point is a very 
tiny patch of heliotrope scales; a dark brown dot, similarly 
circumscribed, five-eighths of the distance from base of wing 
to reniform spot; a submarginal row of six dark brown dots 
from apex to anal angle on outer margin. Each of these dots 
lies within an area of diffused heliotrope scales forming more 
or less of a circle around the individual spot but all running 
together to form an indistinct marginal band; ectad of this a 
thin, dark brown wavy line; marginal cilia alternately white 
and brown, the white being subjacent to the respective submar- 
ginal dots. Hind wings with a similar pale heliotrope band 
containing about five distinct, dark brown dots, almost obsolete 
at outer angle but growing more marked toward anal angle, 
which is much produced and lobed laterad and somewhat re- 
curved (See Plate I, fig. 1). Fore wings ventrad uniformly 
brown, irrorated with heliotrope on apical area and with a 
^ Professor of entomology and chief of the department. 
^ The Entomologist (1842), 298, 1 figure. 
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