The family is divided up into numerous subfamilies whose characteristics are at present poorly defined. The major work by Poole (1989) catalogues all of the world's known species of Noctuidae: I follow his nomenclature. I only catalogue here 115 of the commonest, most colourful, most easily identified or most economically important Noctuid species in my collection from Belize: over 100 further species of this family from Belize await identification in my collection to date. I am grateful to M. Bernard Lalanne-Cassou of INRA, Paris, for his help with identification of many of my Noctuids, where noted. (the large number of remaining mistakes are mine and not his!)

The subfamily AMPHIPYRINAE is a 'dustbin group' containing many unrelated species of Trifinae (Noctuids with a weak or non-existent hindwing vein M2) which do not fit into any other Noctuid subfamily. There is therefore no one characteristic which unifies them and separates them from other Noctuid subfamilies. As more 'natural' classifications are developed this 'subfamily' will undoubtedly be split into several smaller groups.

I have taken large numbers of this large subfamily in Belize to date, but have only obtained identificatiions or partial identifications for 24 species, as listed below. Please click on any underlined species name to go to a colour illustration of the adult (and sometimes its genitalia) and brief information on the species.


The genus Condica