About Synthymia fixa (Fabricius, 1787)
Technical description and variation of Synthymia fixa (also referenced as S. fixa F. = monogramma Hbn., specimen 48 i): Males have ash grey forewings, while females have darker, slightly greenish grey forewings. The outer half of the forewing is suffused with brownish colour, and the entire wing is speckled with black. The orbicular stigma is oval, grey, and set within a whitish ring; it sits vertically at the edge of the grey basal area of the wing. The reniform stigma is also vertical, forming an elongated figure-8 shape, white with dark grey centres. The space between these two stigmata is crossed by a deep brown band, which is sometimes velvety brown in the cell, with the median vein showing white across this band. The inner and outer lines on the forewing are brownish and poorly defined. The inner line is waved and nearly vertical; the outer line is sinuous, edged with grey and whitish on the costa. The subterminal line is thick and whitish, and the fringe is darkly mottled. Hindwings are orange, darker in females than in males. The base of the hindwing is diffusely dark, and it has an olive brown terminal border that is broad at the apex, with traces of a submarginal line on the inner margin. Male hindwings have more fuscous tint, with traces of outer and submarginal lines. In the aberration griseofusa ab.nov. (= ab. 2. Hmps.), the entire hindwing is fuscous. Full-grown larvae are dark green, with a lighter dorsum. Their dorsal and subdorsal lines are pale yellow, edged with dark green. They have a broad white lateral stripe with a dark upper edge. The head is small and yellowish; the thoracic plate is black, and the anal plate is brown. The wingspan of Synthymia fixa ranges from 37 to 40 mm.
