Puhl. 20. I. 1936. 
AUDEA. By M. Gaeue. 
207 
discernible from the Indian form (E. macrops) measuring up to 150 mm. This interesting lepidopteron also 
shows the expressive eye on the forewing, which is rather common among the Ethiopian Catocalinae, most con¬ 
spicuously developed. 
Another reason why the Catocalinae reimesent the best known group of the African Noctuinae is to be 
found in their strong desire for light, which makes these lepidoptera leave their hiding-jdace very early and 
forces them to come to the lantern. In stormy and damp nights, mostly when there is intense sheet-lightning, 
the insects are extremely lively and owing to their large size, they are often captured even by non-entomologists 
who are otherwise not in the habit of hunting after insects. 
Of the more than 1000 forms of Catocalinae known to this day, about 400 forms occur in the Ethiopian 
Region, among which there is not any that belongs into the gigantic genus Catocala (which is now split into 
several genera which, however, are probably hardly more than subgenera, such as Ephesia, Catahapta, Mormo- 
nia). This is all the more remarkable since these Catocala are represented in really amazing numbers in the 
northern, non-Ethiopian parts of Africa. In certain years of flight, as for instance in 1904, there is hardly any 
nook or room to be found, in which Catocala do not try to conceal themselves, and in June then larvae cover 
the trunks and lower branches of the trees which are defoliated by them. But nevertheless not any specimen 
of these multitudes of lepidoptera is known to have ever crossed the Sahara and to have been captured in the 
south; the North African Catocala are strictly separated from the Ethiopian district by the entirely treeless 
desert-zone; merely Achaea and Parallelia resting on the bare ground or on rubble-stones are met with in 
Ethiopian Africa mostly only in those districts, where the Catocala have ceased to occur. 
Hardly anything is known of the early stages of the Ethiopian Catocalinae. Whilst the palaearctic 
larvae of Catocala, relying on their protective colouring, are closely appressed to the bark of trees and thus 
distinctly visible, the Ethiopian larvae of Catocalinae seem to spend the day in hiding-places. As their North 
African alhes are not possessed of any interior poisonous or disgustmg saps and vast numbers of GafocaZa-larvae 
are destroyed by murderous insects (especially Calosoma sycophanta), the imagines by bats, the Ethiopian 
Catocalinae presumably are also without any interior protection; the frequently bright-coloured hindwings of 
the resting imago are usually covered with the leaf-like coloured forewings (Seitz). 
1. Genus: Audea Wkr. 
This genus is composed of 15 Ethiopian forms and but one Indian species. All of them exhibit bark- 
coloured forewings and white or yellow, black-margined hindwings. — Proboscis normal, the palpi reaching 
the frons. Antennae of d ciliated. All the tibiae with spines, body tuftless. Forewing mostly narrow. Veins 
3—5 near the lower cell-angle, 6 from the upper angle, veins 7, 8 -|- 9, and 10 from the areole. Hindwing white 
or yellow with a dark margin, in the former case mostly somewhat dia|ihanous. Veins 3 and 4 from the lower 
cell-angle or on a short stalk, 5 a little above it. The sexes look rather different. Type: hipunctata llTr. from 
Natal. 
1. Forewing of J beneath with androconia from near the base to the exterior line. 
A. endophaea Hmps. (21 a). Thorax blackish brown, abdomen somewhat lighter. Forewing blackish endophaea 
brown, somewhat lighter in the apical area. Interior line black, notched, obliquely outw'ard, beginning with a 
spot at the costal margin. Ti’aces of a black luna at the cross-vein. Traces of a bent line from the lower cell- 
end to the exterior line at vein 2. The black exterior line outwards as far as vein 6, concave above it, then 
dentately in a bow inwards. Then follows a dark line, slightly outwards as far as vein 4 and vertically con¬ 
tinued, the space behind it lighter. Hindwing broadly blackish at the apex, narrower blackish towards the anal 
angle. Broadly brown at the inner margin, yellowish white only at the costal margin at the base. The $ has 
a lighter, reddish-brown thorax and forewing. The interior line and the luna more distinct, also the two other 
lines. Hindwing white, brown only at the distal and inner margins. 50—50 mm. West Africa. 
A. hypostigmata Hmps. (21 b). ^ lighter than the pireceding species. Forewing light red-brown, paler hijposfigm 
in the marginal area. Interior line black, dentate as in endophaea. A short black streak at the upper cell-angle, 
a light, black-edged spot at the lower angle. Both connected with the exterior line. The latter from the middle 
of the costal margin, oblique, faded, outward as far as vein 4, introangular at vein 2, ending close at the interior 
line, excurved between. The border-line of the dark basal area as in endophaea, whitish behind it. Fringe below 
the apex with a white dot. Hindwing white, also at the inner margin. Marginal area dark, very broad in front. 
9 54 mm. Natal. 
A. hemihyala Karsch (21 a). Regarding the dark colouring, midway between the two preceding species. licmihynJa 
Interior line just as thick as hitherto, somewhat steeper from the lower cell-angle. The exterior line as far as 
vein 4 as in endophaea, there with a bow to the lower cell-angle and upwm’ds again at the cro.ss-vein. An oblong 
black spot at vein 3. The continuation of the exterior line from the lower cell-angle much thinner. Ei’om there 
at first bent inward, then obliquely outward to the submedian fold and somewhat more strongly vertical to the 
XV 27 
