STICTOPTERINAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 305 
front greyer, especially in the Darker behind the inward bend at the inner margin. Ring-macula and reni- 
form macula fine, rather indistinct. Median line similar to that of pratti. Exterior line more pointed at vein 5 
than usual. Darker at the costal and inner margins behind it. 28—30 mm. India. 
P. callopistroides Wilem. & West. Thorax greyish yellow, abdomen dark brown. Forewing chocolate 
brown, with a lilac lustre. Interior line double, blackish brown, obliquely outward to vein 1, then vertical. Ring- 
macula pearl-coloured grey, reniform macula dark olive grey, with 2 pearl-coloured spots below. Median line 
sharply outward as far as behind and below the reniform macula, then somewhat undulate. Exterior line double, 
blackish brown, enclosing 4 pearl-coloured spots, oblique and sharply excurved to vein 2, then somewhat out¬ 
ward to the inner margin. A chocolate brown submarginal spot, edged with grey as far as vein 4, three more 
dark spots adjoining to it. Hindwing dark brown, with a light anal spot. 25 mm. 1 <$ from the Philippines. 
Subfamily: Stictopterinae. 
This subfamily had only very lightly been touched upon in Vol. Ill, because it is represented by but 
one species strongly deviating from the group in the palaearctic fauna, and as hardly twenty of its species occur 
in the Ethiopian Region, the group was but briefly described also in Vol. XV (p. 175). More than a hundred 
species are known, only few of which live in America, so that the subfamily (with 85 species) may be regarded 
as chiefly Indo-Australian, for which reason we deal here with its distribution somewhat more thoroughly. The 
centre of its range is New Guinea, as it is the case with the Eutelianae , yet there are but very few species that 
pass over to the north of Australia. There is, however, another concentration of species in Singapore, where 
Stictopterinae frequently (for instance in January) fly to the lanterns in such vast multitudes that their panes 
are entirely covered by them. From there quite a number pass over to the neighbouring coasts, chiefly to 
Sumatra which is closely adjacent; but also Borneo, Malacca as far as Siam and various small Sunda Islands 
teem yet with Stictopterinae as our swarming places do with the common Plusiae in favourable summer nights. 
Nearly a dozen species occur in Ceylon, and as many are distributed over the southern parts of India. Just a 
few occur yet in North India with larger numbers of individuals in Sikkim, but here the group reaches its north¬ 
western frontier; it is only on the Mediterranean coasts that Nycteola falsalis appears somewhat isolated, but 
this species differs also more from the Stictopterinae in morphological respects. 
Systematically, the subfamily is very closely allied with the preceding subfamily. The most conspicuous 
characteristic feature, the stout head with its upward-standing, pointed palpi, the mostly very large bare eyes, 
the strong proboscis, the appressed clothing of the body exhibiting in but few sjiecies tiny combs that can be 
ruffled up, the larvae being mostly naked or exhibiting but very few small bristles, all this is so very similar 
to the Eutelianae that — as it was mentioned there — they might also be treated upon together with them. In 
the neuration vein 5 of the hindwing almost invariably arises close at 4, but in judging the group too exclusively 
by the neuration, the various authors did not only compose it in different ways, but sometimes the same author 
in his diverse treatises placed the Stictoptera and Odontodes together in one group with the quite differently 
disposed large Arete and the Catephia, or sometimes he separated them far from them. 
All the Stictopterinae are good fliers; nevertheless the home of their Indo-Australian genera was confined 
to the countries mentioned above, the torrid parts of India and the Papuan region adjoining to the Sunda 
Archipelago, which we have already denoted as the geographical centre of the subfamily. Many species of the 
Indo-Australian region resemble each other in exhibiting more or less extensive vitreous spots in the hindwing, 
which sometimes represent only wedge-shaped spots traversed by the veins, but which often also transform the 
whole proximal half of the wing into a large glass window. In the shape of the wings the group sometimes ex¬ 
hibits strange extremes as they scarcely occur in any other Noctuids. Thus the forewings of Sadarsa longipennis 
are reduced to mere stripes, whereas their hindwings are enormously broad. 
Extraordinarily little is known of the larvae; the single larvae known are elevated on the 11th segment; 
the larva of Risoba obstructa Mr. is unicoloured, dark brown with a grey head. It lives on Sterculia, an entirely 
tropical plant, and the confinement to exclusively tropical plants may be the reason why no Stictopterina, ex¬ 
cept Nycteola, reaches the temperate zone in either of the hemispheres. 
The most prominent peculiarity is also in this subfamily a variability which is hardly surpassed by any 
other group and which brought about a chaotic synonymy in some species. Not only can any mixture of colour 
from light ochre to wood-brown be ascertained at the same place and at the same hour, but also very distinct 
schemes of marking, such as longitudinal stripes, transverse lines, horseshoe-spots may occur beside entirely 
callopistro¬ 
ides. 
