The Noctuidae are the largest family of moths worldwide, with over 21,000 species described. They vary in size from ten millimetres in wingspan to 20 centimetres or more, although with only a few exceptions they are dull moths with grey, brown or black wings and few obvious markings.
Many noctuids have larvae which are serious agricultural pests.
The family is divided up into numerous subfamilies whose characteristics are at present poorly defined. I am grateful to M. Bernard Lalanne-Cassou of INRA, Paris, for his help with identification of many of my Noctuids, where noted. Together these two subfamilies account for over half of the species of world Noctuidae. The Catocalinae are traditionally separated from the Ophiderinae by the possession of spines on the mid-tibiae in Catocalinae, which are lacking in Ophiderinae. Most Catocalines are large to very large and very robust in appearance and flight.