About Pachetra sagittigera Hufnagel, 1766
This species has a wingspan ranging from 32 to 45 mm. Its forewings are grey, suffused with darker grey and brown. The claviform stigma varies in size and appears blackish. The two upper stigmata are large, have grey centers with white edges, and may sometimes be entirely white. The submarginal line is diffusely pale, and preceded by black wedge-shaped marks. The hindwing is dirty grey, with a darker cell spot, postmedian line, and submarginal cloud. The form vestigialis Esp. has a prominent white patch at the base of the forewing costa. The form ravida Esp. is rarer, and has both the median and marginal areas colored reddish brown. The subspecies pyrenaica Oberth., native to the Pyrenees, is a melanic form with forewings entirely suffused with blackish grey. The form bombycina Ev., from the Ural Mountains, is smaller and darker, with fine white lines along the median and submedian veins. Both upper stigmata are much smaller and white-edged; the reniform stigma is not kidney-shaped, but instead narrow with parallel white lateral edges, a flat uncurved lower end, and per Eversmann, it runs inward along the median vein. In contrast, the form ab. incana Mill. is a distinctly pale form. An additional form from the Sila Mountains, Calabria, was named ab. grisescens nov. [Warren]. The six known male specimens are somewhat smaller than the typical fulminea, and are dark grey suffused with fuscous, with no mix of brown or ochreous coloring. Their upper stigmata are grey with white outlines, and the claviform stigma is black. The underside is whitish with a dusting of grey, has large cell spots, and an outer line present on both wings. Per Hampson, specimens from Syria have white hindwings, with only the veins colored brown.
