Adult - forewing variable, usually mottled whitish-gray [or blackish in melanic form "denussa"] [or with black basal patch and ST band in form "phalanga"]; AM line a considerable distance from subreniform spot; in form "annida", forewing whitish with black reniform spot, subapical spot, and border along inner margin; hindwing orange with irregular black bands in all forms; fringe orange at apex. [adapted from description by Charles Covell]
Range
Ontario, Quebec, and Maine to Georgia, west to Texas, north to South Dakota and Minnesota. (7)
Lectotype male: vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. (5)
Absent a view of the HW, palaeogama is nearly indistinguishable from C. lacrymosa, though lacrymosa does tend to have more prominent white chevrons at the inner margin and more prominent charcoal-colored "spikes" running parallel with the inner margin through the lower "tooth" of the PM line (typically broken or faded at median area in palaeogama)
Print References
Barnes, Wm. & J.H. McDunnough, 1918. Illustrations of the North American species of the genus Catocala. Memoirs of the AMNH 2(1): p.15; Pl.6, f.18-20; Pl.13. f.4 (larva). (3)
Guenée A. & J.B. Boisduval, 1852. Vol. 7. Noctuélites, tome 3. Histoire naturelle des insectes. Spécies général des lépidoptères. Roret, Paris,97. (1)
