Diagnosis. The external features are similar to those of macrotheca except the male antennae are ciliate without any sign of a node. The hair pencil of the male foreleg is similarly greyish buff, however. The dark fasciae and discal spot of the forewing are generally more conspicuous but this is variable; the postmedial is sigmoid and both fasciae are distinctly crenulate. The male genitalia have the valve without a bulge on the ventral margin, but the apex is sometimes slightly produced and acute on the dorsal side. The aedeagus vesica is similar to that of macrotheca but has the distal diverticulum somewhat different as described under that species.
Taxonomic note. This species represents the concept of butesalis as set out in the BMNH curation and by Poole (1989). However, Swinhoe (1900) noted that the male of butesalis had noded antennae, as stated in the description of Libisosa of which it is the type species. The next oldest name is concisalis Walker (t. loc. Aru), the male genitalia being closely similar to material from Borneo. Females from Borneo have genitalia similar to those of aroa Bethune-Baker, where the holotype is female. Poole also included murinalis Moore in the synonymy of this erroneous concept of butesalis, represented in the BMNH only by the holotype female from Bengal. It has not been dissected, but it is probably a distinct species, stat. rev., with the forewing antemedial and postmedial fasciae more widely separated than in butesalis or concisalis, and with the hindwing underside postmedial and submarginal parallel and straight over much of the wing anterior to the obtuse angle.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics east to New Guinea but not Australia.
Habitat preference. The species is common in lowland forest, including secondary forest.
