Metriok. — Descriptions of TVeiv Zealand Lepidoptera. 101 



Art. XVII. — Descriptions of New Zealand Lepidoptera. 



By E. Meyrick, B.A., F.K.*. 



Communicated by Dr. Charles Chilton. 

 [Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd December, 1913.] 



I am indebted to Messrs. Gr. V. Hudson and A. Philpott for an unusual 

 amount of interesting material this year, and am enabled to describe thirty- 

 seven new species. These include several remarkable new types which one 

 would hardly have expected to escape observation so long, but also some 

 obscure forms which have been with difficulty disentangled after prolonged 

 study. The New Zealand fauna contains an exceptional proportion of these 

 difficult forms, whose slight and elusive differences do not provoke sus- 

 picion ; whilst, on the other hand, there are very variable species whose 

 forms exhibit much greater apparent diversity. 



Attention might be directed to the species of Nepticula, neglected on 

 account of their minute size. The larvae mine blotches or galleries in 

 leaves, and are not difficult to find. I took three species in New Zealand, 

 but they have not been noticed by others ; there may probably be a dozen. 



. , . , Caradrinidae. 



Aletia obsecrata n. sp. 



?. 34 mm. Head and thorax dark grey mixed with white and black. 

 Palpi grey mixed with white and black, second joint hairy, terminal joint 

 rather long. Abdomen grey. Forewings elongate-triangular, costa straight, 

 termen bowed, hardly waved, oblique ; dark grey, somewhat mixed with 

 light grey-greenish ; an undefined white subbasal line from costa reaching 

 § across wing, edged poste rorly with blackish ; discal space between this 

 and first line indistinctly streaked with brownish ; first and second lines 

 waved, whitish, edged with blackish suffusion ; median shade curved, 

 blackish, on lower half of wing suffused into margins of first and second 

 lines ; orbicular and reniform indistinctly outlined with white irroration ; 

 an almost terminal series of spots of white irroration, preceded by blackish 

 suffusion ; a terminal series of black semicircular dots separated by whitish 

 irroration : cilia grey with two blackish shades, towards base barred with 

 white irroration. Hindwings grey irrorated with blackish, towards base 

 thinly ; cilia whitish, with indistinct greyish subbasal line. 



Ben Lomond, 2,000-3,000 ft., not uncommon (Philpott) ; one specimen. 

 At once recognizable by the unusually dark colouring. 



Aletia fibrata Meyr. 



This name (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 45, p. 22) is there misprinted fibriata. 



Aletia sminthistis Hamps. 



I have examined the type of this species. It is a large insect allied to 

 griseipennis, but considerably darker. I have seen no other specimen. 



Aletia sollennis n. sp. 



<J. 35 mm. Head and thorax light brownish-ochreous or brownish. 

 Terminal joint of palpi short. Antennae ciliated (1). Forewings elongate- 



