This species has been taken in the South Island at Mount Arthur, Castle Hill and Dunedin.
The expansion of the wings is rather under 1½ inches. The fore-wings are dull yellowish-brown, with many obscure, wavy, transverse, brown lines, which tend to form two ill-defined bands, one rather narrow near the base and the other much broader near the middle of the wing. _The hind-wings are very pale yellowish-brown_; there are a few obscure dark lines near the dorsum. _The veins are distinctly dotted in black, and the outline of all the wings is deeply scalloped._
The perfect insect appears in January, but is not common.
(_Coremia deltoidata_, Walk. 1321. _Cidaria inclarata_, Walk. 1411. _Cidaria perductata_, Walk. 1412. _Cidaria congressata_, Walk. 1412. _Cidaria conversata_, Walk. 1413. _Cidaria descriptata_, Walk. 1414. _Cidaria bisignata_, Walk. 1415. _Cidaria aggregata_, Walk. 1415. _Cidaria congregata_, Walk. 1415. _Cidaria plagifurcata_, Walk. 1416. _Coremia pastinaria_, Gn., E. M. M. v. 64. _Cidaria inopiata_, Feld. cxxxii. 3. _Cidaria monoliata_, Feld. cxxxii. 8. _Cidaria perversata_, Feld. cxxxii. 14, 24. _Scotosia deltoidata_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xvi. 70. _Cephalissa deltoidata_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xviii. 184.)
This pretty insect is extremely abundant throughout the country.
The expansion of the wings varies from 1-1/8 to 1-3/8 inches. The fore-wings vary from brownish-black to dull orange-brown; there is a small darker area near the base, then two pale whitish wavy transverse lines, then a broad darker central band, often containing within it a still darker central band, bounded by two wavy black transverse lines; beyond the central band there are nearly always two or three pale brown or whitish, wavy, transverse lines, then an interrupted line just before the termen, and a short oblique whitish line below the apex; there is a black dot a little above the centre of the wing, and _a white dot on the termen near the middle_. The hind-wings are yellowish-brown, with several wavy, transverse lines near the dorsum; there is a series of fine crescentic black lines on the termen of both fore- and hind-wings.
{ 48}This species is extremely variable, but may generally be recognised by a careful scrutiny of the above-named characters. One very striking variety occasionally met with has the central band of the fore-wing completely divided in the middle, which thus forms two dark patches, one on the costa, and one on the dorsum. (See Plate VII., figs. 7 and 8.) A further development of this variety, of which I have only seen one example, taken by Mr. Hawthorne at Springfield, Canterbury, and now in his collection, has only the costal patch present, the whole of the lower portions of the band being completely obliterated.[28] (See Plate VII., fig. 9.) The minor varieties are too numerous to specify.