312 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Aet. XXYII. — On Dodonidia helmsi, Fereday. 



By P. Makshall, M.A. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 1st May, 



1895.] 



Plate XV. 



This species was added to the list of New Zealand butterflies 

 by Mr. R. W. Fereday in 1882, in which year a description of 

 the butterfly was written by him, drawn from a single speci- 

 men captured by Mr. Helms, of Westport, at an altitude of 

 1,500ft. 



It has been my good fortune during the past summer to 

 obtain eight good specimens of the insect ; they were all 

 obtained in the North Island, within a few miles of Wanganui. 

 Seeing the great rarity of the butterfly, a few remarks on its 

 habits may be worth recording. All the specimens were cap- 

 tured in small bush-gullies, the sides of which are partially 

 cleared of the light bush that formerly covered them. In the 

 upper parts of these gullies the stream at the bottom has 

 formed a small gorge, and, as there is a steep fall, it rushes 

 over small boulders and waterfalls. x\bout half a mile from 

 the head of the gully the fall becomes much less steep, and 

 the bottom is broad and flat, the floor consisting of material 

 brought down by the stream from the upper part of its course. 

 Owing to the very small incline in this part of the gully the 

 water flows sluggishly and spreads well over the flat bottom, 

 forming a well-defined swamp, in which ordinary swamp- 

 plants are found, such as Typlia angustifolia, Garex virgata, 

 Cyjjerus ustulatus, Arundo conspicua, and now and then a 

 bush of Veronica salicifolia. It was in this part of the gully 

 that the insects were found flapping lazily over the swamp- 

 plants, and now and then alighting on leaves of shrubby trees 

 that everywhere fringe the valley-bottom. It was particularly 

 noticeable that the insects nearly always settled on the under- 

 side of the leaves of Bracliyglottis rcpanda or Fuchsia excorti- 

 cata, where the bright silver streaks on the under-surface of 

 their secondaries so harmonized with the white surface of the 

 underside of the leaf as to afford them abundant protection. 

 The insects fed upon the honey in the flowers of the Veronica 

 shrubs on which some of our specimens were captured. In 

 three valleys of the nature above described these insects were 

 found. One of these was close to Wanganui, and the other 

 two at Kai-iwi, about eight miles in a direct line from the 

 other locality. Though I have frequently visited these gullies 



