About Hypena rostralis (Linnaeus, 1758)
This species, Hypena rostralis (Linnaeus, 1758), has the following technical description and variation. The forewing is grey-brown, with either grey or brown tints sometimes predominating; it is speckled and striated with black, and mixed with pale grey. Lines are black, with reverse ochreous edges. The inner line is strongly dentate, while the outer line is nearly straight, projecting slightly on each fold. The costa bears oblique dark striae. The median area, and often also the basal area, are darker, with the cell being particularly dark. The orbicular stigma is a tuft of raised scales, colored black or black and white, connected by a long black line to an ill-defined black reniform. The subterminal line is pale, dentate, and generally obscure, preceded by a brown shade. There is an oblique black shade extending from the apex, and a row of black terminal lunules. The hindwing is fuscous grey. The aberration radiatalis Hbn. is suffused with fuscous, with the costal streak and a broad submarginal space remaining pale dull ochreous. The termen has wedge-shaped grey marks that are confluent with the fuscous suffusion on the two folds, and the lines and stigmata are feebly marked. In aberration unicolor Tutt, the forewing is uniformly grey-brown, with nearly all black scaling absent. Palpalis F. is also unicolorous, but it is dark grey with no brown tint. Vittatus Haw. appears to be simply a form where the costal streak is paler than the rest of the wing. Sometimes the ground colour is ochreous; when all markings are also well developed, this is the aberration ochrea-variegata Tutt, which is not uncommon. In contrast, the form ochrea Tutt — a third unicolorous ochreous form with no markings — is very rare. The larva is green with pale lines. The wingspan of the species is 27–32 mm.
