266 Transactions. — Zoology. 



panion shortly succeeded in withdrawing piecemeal a speci- 

 men of Odontria. T ^j 



Caccecia excessana. 



This common and very variable moth has taken on a new 

 habit of great importance to the general public, and especially 

 to fruit-growers. Meyrick described the insect as probably 

 polyphagous, and Mr. Fereday has recorded, and Mr. Hudson 

 observed, the caterpillar's habit of spinning down a leaf on to 

 a nearly ripe apple or pear and eating away the fruit under 

 the leaf. But the habit that I am about to record is, I 

 believe, new, and certainly very destructive. The moth lays 

 her eggs on the leaves of the apricot, on which the larva feeds 

 till the fruit is nearly ripe. Then it bores its way into the 

 fruit in the groove near the stem. It eats its way under the 

 stem, which thus looses its hold, and the fruit falls to the 

 ground when it is just starting to ripen. An apricot-tree 

 near Lincoln College was loaded with well-formed fruit 

 beginning to take on the colour of ripeness. Within a fort- 

 night the whole of the fruit had fallen off without ripening. 



Heliostibes atychioid.es. 



Meyrick notices tl}is moth as frequenting Leptospermum. 

 I found its larva in great numbers on the ornamental shrub 

 Juniperus communis. The caterpillar is about -§-in. in length 

 and Jg in. broad. It is of a light-brown colour, with the head 

 and thorax dark-brown or black. Some hundreds were feed- 

 ing on a single branch, and had quite destroyed the tough 

 prickly foliage. When pupating they spin a cocoon binding 

 several of the leaves together, and the general effect was 

 to entirely destroy the branch on which they had been feed- 

 ing. 



Plutella cruciferarum. 



The caterpillar of this moth abounds in, and often ruins, 

 the turnip-crops of this district. I found many specimens 

 that had been killed by the entomophagous fungus Ento- 

 moyhthora radicans, with which I was able to infect healthy 

 larvae, though not with that degree of certainty that one could 

 have wished for. 



Porina cervinata. 



I found very numerous specimens of the larva of this moth 

 under the roots of long-established grass at Lincoln College. 

 The caterpillar is in all respects like that of P. signata, as 

 figured by Mr. Hudson in his "New Zealand Moths." I iso- 

 lated several specimens on the 23rd September, and some 

 of them hatched out on the 15th October. 



