Howes. — On the Occurrence of Metacrias strategica. 189 



On the 27th November, 1899, 1 found a female moth in the 

 bush at West Plains (about five miles north-west of Inver- 

 cargill) ; it was lying under a log, and had laid its eggs in the 

 usual manner — i.e., it had burst open. Many of the eggs 

 were lying scattered about, but the majority were still lying in 

 the shell of their parent. Of these eggs about forty produced 

 caterpillars, but, unfortunately, they all died withm a week, 

 so I suppose I had not placed them under their natural con- 

 ditions. The caterpillars when first emerged were of a very 

 pale golden-brown, and very small. The hairs were thinly 

 scattered, and seemed very long in proportion to the size of 

 the body. Of the female moths which I reared three laid 

 eggs, but all the eggs proved unfertile, and as the moths 

 simply fell to pieces I lost them also. The eggs are of a dull- 

 white colour, and about the same size as those of N. annulata. 

 I also took one female from the bush where I had originally 

 taken the caterpillars, but the eggs produced no larvae. On 

 the 11th February, 1900, I again took six larvae from this 

 bush, but they were of small size. 



On the 27th February, when passing down an unformed 

 sand road at Otatara (due west from Invercargill, and about 

 eight miles by road), I found these larvae in fair numbers 

 crawling along the sandy road in the full glare of the sun- 

 shine. They seemed to do very little feeding, but I noticed 

 one or two that stopped to rear themselves up against a blade 

 of grass for that purpose. They were all travelling towards 

 the north, and varied in size from very small to half-grown. 



On the 8th March I took six more from the same road. 

 These were all about half-grown, with the exception of one, 

 which was as small as though freshly emerged. All these 

 were feeding, and it seemed to me that perhaps the period 

 during which they wander might be over. 



1 noticed that there were two distinct types in this cater- 

 pillar, the one being a glossy-black above merging into rich- 

 brown underneath, the other a deep glossy-brown above 

 merging into light-brown below. The brown is, I think, the 

 future male moth, and is generally larger than the black, or 

 future female moth. The caterpillars, especially the darker 

 ones, strongly resemble those of N. annulata, and I found 

 I was liable to pass over them as such. This similarity 

 may account for this moth being so little known, as it 

 certainly spreads over a considerable area here. The 

 hairs of the Metacrias caterpillar are longer, and are also 

 arranged in denser tufts. There are also several long grey 

 hairs projecting from its anal extremity. On being alarmed 

 it rolls itself up into a ball and remains in that position for a 

 considerable time. The caterpillars generally feed by day, 

 but when nearly full-grown I noticed them feeding by night 



