22 Transactions. — Zoology. 



with two tolerably distinct series of white dots, preceded and 

 followed by black marks, before first and beyond second lines ; 

 lines dark-margined, tolerably defined ; orbicular and claviform 

 hardly traceable ; reniform indicated by whitish lateral margins ; 

 subterminal faintly paler, not dark-margined, waved : cilia grey. 

 Hindwings grey, darker posteriorly ; cilia grey-whitish, with a 

 cloudy grey line. 



"Wellington ; one specimen, given me by Mr. G. V. Hudson, 

 who has taken others. 



83. Mam. com2)osita, Gn. 



{Cloantha composita, Gn., Noct. vi., 114 ; Auchmis composita, Walk., Noct., 

 616 ; Butl., Voy. Ereb., pi. ix., 12; Mamestra maori, Feld., Reis. Nov., 

 pi. cix., 24 ; Leucania dentigera, Butl., teste Skellon, but reference not 

 found.) 



Male, female. — 32-36 mm. Head, palpi, antennfc, thorax, 

 abdomen, and legs ochreous- whitish ; face with a dark fuscous 

 band ; palpi more or less mixed with dark fuscous ; antennas 

 in male serrate, moderately ciliated ; thorax with moderate 

 double anterior and posterior crests, tinged with brownish- 

 ochreous, with a black posteriorly white-margined anterior line, 

 and a sometimes indistinct blackish streak on patagia ; abdomen 

 in male reddish-tinged ; legs irrorated with fuscous, anterior 

 tarsi with two apical joints black. Forewings moderately dilated, 

 costa almost straight, apex obtuse, hindmargin waved, obliquely 

 rounded ; pale whitish-ochreous, towards disc and hindmargin 

 brownish-tinged ; subcostal and subdorsal spaces more or less 

 sufi'used with white ; a fine black median streak from base to ^ ; 

 a fine black line, bordered above with white and beneath suf- 

 fusedly with fuscous, from first to second lines above middle, 

 interrupted by a small semiannular white mark representing 

 lower edge of reniform ; first line obsolete ; second fine, dark 

 fuscous, very strongly dentate ; subterminal fine, obscure, dark 

 fuscous, preceded by a whitish suffusion, extremely strongly and 

 very irregularly dentate, receding widely from hindmargin 

 above middle and towards lower extremity, but with two long 

 dentations touching hindmargin below middle : cilia greyish- 

 ochreous barred with white. Hindwings grey, ochreous- 

 tinged, becoming dark-grey posteriorly ; cilia white, with a pale 

 gi'ey line. 



Larva longitudinally striped with dark and light, feeding on 

 grasses ; sometimes occurs in great profusion. 



Napier, Wellington, Christchurch, and Lake Coleridge, in 

 February and March ; sometimes abundant. Occurs also in 

 South-East Australia and Tasmania. 



34. Mam. sternpastis, n. sp. 

 Male, female. — 40-43 mm. Head ochreous, mixed with 

 ■\Yhitish, and ii-regularly marked with dark reddish-fuscous. 



