Howes. — Entomology of Stewart Island. 99 



nothing was attracted. For the remaining evenings of my stay I per- 

 sisted with the *' sugaring " of the trees. Whether rain or fine, the mixture 

 proved quite unattractive save to the usual olla podrida of the com- 

 moner beetles, chelifers, cockroaches, Arachnidae, &c. The absence of 

 the moths was the more unexplainable as no attractive bush flowers were 

 out. At the township the flowers of Escallonia attracted the common 

 Morrisonia mutans, M. plena, M. stipata, and M. rubescens, Leucania atri- 

 striga, L. semivittata, Persectania ewingii, and Ariathisa comma. 



Working the bush tracks each evening with net and lamp I was fairly 

 successful, getting the rare Hydriomena arida in fair numbers, and a few 

 Xanthorhoe oraria and X. occulta ; also Chloroclystis muscosata and C. lichen- 

 odes, and one or two Tafosoma agrionata. Sestra flexata flew from the 

 bracken-fronds, while Xanthorhoe beata was common enough to be rather 

 a nuisance. Xanthorhoe aegrota, X. semisignata, Hydriomena similata, Asa- 

 phodes rufeseens, and A. rufescens var. falcata, with one or two Selidosema 

 dejectaria, practically complete the list. The fine but common Rhapsa 

 scotosialis was present in large numbers. In the micros I found but little 

 of interest, the best being the delicate plume Pterophorus monospilalis. 

 A small Tortricite somewhat resembling Ctenopseustis obliquana struck me 

 as new, and on reference to Mr. Philpott he informed me that it was un- 

 described, he having a specimen also. This has since been described as 

 Tortrix tigris. 



I am indebted to my sister, Miss Edith Howes, for a most interesting 

 find. When hunting for sea-animals on a small rocky islet, in Half-moon 

 Bay, she came upon a number of caterpillars. These I found were feeding 

 on a clump of Panax, and I had no hesitation in placing them as the larvae 

 of Declana egregia. So numerous were the caterpillars of this rare moth 

 that I was able to send dozens of them to the Dominion Museum, in Wel- 

 lington, to be reared. Unfortunately, no moths have emerged. Having 

 kept one or two caterpillars, I had the pleasure of rearing a single very fine 

 specimen of Declana egregia. The number of larvae on the shrub was so 

 great that the green leaves had all been eaten, and the larvae were cling- 

 ing to the bare stems, gnawing the softer bark and terminal buds. This 

 starvation diet and the long-continued rain explains the non-success in 

 rearing. 



On several occasions I attempted to arrange trips to reach the higher 

 levels of Stewart Island, but owing to the bad weather and the difficulty 

 of transit and length of time involved had to abandon the idea. Mount 

 Anglem (3,200 ft.) and Mount Kakeahua (2,200 ft.), with their tops above 

 the bush line, should provide a fine field, full of interesting and novel finds, 

 for some more fortunate collector. 



The following notes on the insects collected by Mr. E. Fisher, of Gore, 

 at Euggedy, on the north-west corner of the island, form a very interesting 

 addition to our knowledge, and deal with a locality not easily attainable 

 to the average collector. 



During Easter, 1911, Mr. Fisher was one of a party camped at Euggedy. 

 Volume 44, Trans. N.Z. Inst., page 76, gives the botanical results of 

 this expedition, the article being by Mr. Poppelwell, of Gore. The accom- 

 panying lists show the insect fauna as collected by Mr. Fisher, and great 

 credit is due to him for the number of species taken and the wide range 

 they cover. Mr. Fisher's previous experience in entomological collecting 

 was limited to a single night's " treacling," with myself, at the bush near 



