42 Transactions. 



Art. XI. — Notes and Descriptions of New Zealand Lepidoptera. 



By Alfred Philpott. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 9th December, 1919 ; received by Editor, 31st December 



1919 ; issued separately, 4th June, 1920.] 



Caradrinidae. 

 Agrotis spina Guen., Nod., vol. 1, p. 269; Hamps., Cat. Lep. Phal, vol. 4, 

 p. 367. 



This well-known Australian moth should be added to the list of New 

 Zealand Lepidoptera. Dr. A. Jefieris Turner, of Brisbane, has kindly 

 supplied me with examples, and these show that spitia has been hitherto 

 overlooked by New Zealand lepidopterists, having been treated as a form of 

 A. ypsilon. The males of the Australian examples which I have are more 

 ochreous than New Zealand specimens, but the females are of almost 

 exEtctly the same tint. The .chief difference between the species is to 

 be found in the form of the subterminal line : in ypsiloyi this is strongly 

 dentate, whilst iii spina it is only slightly irregular. In spina also the 

 orbicular and reniform are connected by a prominent blackish bar, this 

 being absent in ypsilon. These distinctions, however, apply best to the 

 males, the females of the species being very difficult to separate. 



From Dr. Turner I learn that Agrotis spina is found throughout 

 Australia, and is in some seasons extraordinarily .abundant. 



Aletia panda n. sp. 



S, 33 mm. ; ?, 36 mm. Head and palpi grey, in S tinged with ochreous. 

 Antennae in S strongly hipectinated. Thorax grey, with dark bar on 

 collar, crests absent. Abdomen greyish-ochreous. Legs greyish-ochreous, 

 anterior tarsi blackish annulated with ochreous. Forewings, costa almost 

 straight, apex rounded, termen oblique, evenly rounded ; bluish-gxey, 

 tinged with ochreous, in ? mixed with blackish-fuscous ; a black dot on 

 cpsta at base, margined broadly with whitish ; first line faintly indicated, 

 irregiilarly dentate, fuscous, margined anteriorly with whitish ; second 

 line from | costa to f- dorsum, deeply and widely indented on upper 

 half, irregularly dentate on lower half, blackish ; a thin dentate fuscous pre- 

 subterminal line, curving beneath reniform and closely approaching second 

 line, thence running parallel with it to dorsum, apex of teeth margined 

 with white ; subterminal line obscure, margined anteriorly, in ^ narrowly, 

 in $ broadly, with fuscous ; a series of fuscous dots round termen ; orbicular 

 circular, pale, interruptedly margined with fuscous ; claviform directly beneath 

 orbicular, circular, half as large as, and similar in colouring to, orbicidar ; 

 reniform pale, faintly fuscous-margined : cilia ochreous with basal and 

 post-median fuscous lines. Hind wings in (^ ochreous-fuscous, in $ fuscous : 

 cilia ochreous, in $ with obscure fuscous line. 



Very close to A. cuneata Philp. in appearance, but differing in the 

 pectinated antennae and the, pale-centred stigmata. In the structure of 

 the antennae and palpi the new form comes nearer to A. temenaula Meyr. 

 I have placed the species in Aletia owing to its obvious relationship to the 

 cuneata-temenaula group, but the arrangement of species at present adopted 

 for our New Zealand forms in this genus and Leucania seems to me to stand 

 in need of revision. 



A single pair is all the material at present available. The male was 

 taken by Mr. G. V. Hudson on Mount Earnslaw in January, 1914, and the 

 female was captured by myself at Routeburn in December, 1918. The 

 types remain in the collections of their respective discoverers. 



