28 



Order Lepidoptera. 



The Lepidoptera of New Zealand : by Arthur Gardiner 

 Butler, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



About a year ago Dr. W. L. Buller urged upon me the 

 desirability of making a list of New Zealand Lepidoptera ; 

 but I was at that time unable to undertake it, being busily 

 engaged with my " Lepidoptera Exotica " and with various 

 papers on Myriopoda and Arachnoidea : recently however 

 Dr. J. E. Gray \eij kindly intrusted me with the prepara- 

 tion of the Lepidopterous portion of the " Erebus and 

 Terror." I thought, therefore, I might as well make a 

 complete list, and thus supply the want which Dr. Buller, 

 Mr. Fereday, and others have so long deplored. 



Notwithstanding what Mr. Fereday says about the 

 numbers of Moths in New Zealand, I cannot but agree 

 with Mr. Bathgate that it is unusually poor in Lepidoptera, 

 not " as compared to a tropical country," but as compared 

 to Europe ; still it is evident that Captain Hutton has (as 

 regards the Diurnal Lepidoptera at any rate) underrated 

 its productive powers ; he says in his paper on " the 

 Geographical relations of the New Zealand Fauna " — 



" Of the Lepidoptera I know hardly anything, and prefer 

 waiting until Mr. Fereday has published his promised 

 descriptions of the species, before examining their bearing 

 on the present subject. But one fact stands out pro- 

 minently, viz., that out of more than three hundred species, 

 only eight belong to the butterfly section." Trans. N. Zeal. 

 Inst, v., p. 247 (1873), and Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Febr. 

 (1874). Now if we turn to Mr. Fereday's paper (Trans. 

 N. Zeal. Inst. IV., pp. 216, 217) we find the following 

 passage — " Although I liave had but little time or oppor- 

 tunity / have collected, of butterflies at least * eight, and of 

 moths quite 300 different species," and he goes on to 

 enumerate no less than eleven apparently distinct species 

 with which he is familiar ; if Hamadryas zoilus be reaUy 

 a New Zealand insect, the number of butterflies will then 

 be twelve instead of eight ; and all these Capt. Hutton 

 should have admitted into his statement. Mr. Fereday 

 has, I believe, noticed quite recently the occurrence of 

 Danais Berenice in New Zealand; the species will, of 

 course, be D. Archippus, now common in Australia and the 

 South Seas. 



Most of the New Zealand Lepidoptera, as one might 

 have expected, seem to be grass-feeders ; some of them 

 indeed of enormous size {Charagia, Leto, Porina) ; they 

 are as a rule of dull colours, although Chrysophamis 

 Boldcnarum the most beautiful, though one of the smallest 

 species of the genus, is a notable exception to the general 

 rule ; Pyrameis Goncrilla may almost vie with our 

 European P. Atalanta ; the beautiful silvery-streaked 

 Argyrophenga is also only surpassed by the Argyrophonts 

 argenteus of Cliili ; and one or two of the smaller moths 

 are very pretty indeed. 



In the following list I have followed Bates's arrangement 

 for the Rhopalocera and Walker's for the Heterocera — ■ 



Section Rhopaloceka, Boisduval. 



Family 1. Nymphalid^, Westwood. 



Ge7i. Diurn. Lepid., p. 143 (1852) ; Bates, Journ. Eiitom., 



p. 176 (1864). 



Sub-Family 1. Danain^, Bates. 

 Journ., Entom. p. 220 (1861), p. 176 (1864). 



Genus Hamadryas, Boisduval. 

 Voy. de V Astrolabe, Ent. p. 91 (1832). 



1. Hamadryas Zoilus. 



Papilio D. F. Zoilus, Fah., Syst. Ent, p. 480, n. 163 

 (1775); Sjy. Lis., p. 53, n. 229 (1781); Mant. Ins.,p). 25, 

 n. 265 (1787) ; -£"71!!. Syst. III., p. 42, n. 128 (1793) ; Gen. 

 Diurn. Lepid., pi. XVIII*.,/. 1 (1847). 



Barnard Isle, Australia (Macgillivray). B.M. 



Said to occur in New Zealand ; see Dieffenhach's N. Zeal. 

 II. A2}p., p. 284), an Australian example in the collection of 

 the British Museum bears a label with the following note, 

 " In thick and gloomy brushes." 



The Nymphalis Nais of Guerin is slightly different from 

 the typical form. 



Sub-Family 2. Satyrin^, Bates. 

 Journ. Entom. II., p. 176 (1864). 



Genus 2. Argyrophenga, Doubleday. 

 Anyi. & Mag. Nat. Hist. XVI., p. 307 (1845). 



2. Argyrophenga ANTiPODUM. TaZ). 8, /s. 4— 7. 



Argyrophenga antipodum, Doubleday, Aim. <& Marj. Nat. 

 Hist. XVI., 'p- 307 (1845) ; Gen. Diurn. Lepid, pi. 63,/. 6 

 (1851). 



New Zealand (P. Earl). Type. B.M. 



The introduction of ocelli on the undersurface of the 

 secondaries in fig. 6 is probably an error, we apparently 

 have the specimens from which all the figures were taken 

 in the collection ; and an example, answering in all other 

 respects to figs. 4 and 6, shows no trace of these ocelli. 



'This species is, according to Mr. Fereday (Trans. New 

 Zeal. Inst. IV., p. 217) rather common in some river beds, 

 particularly the Waimakariri. 



Before passing on to the next sub-family I may 

 mention an ? Erebia named by Mr. Fereday as E. j^luto but 

 merely described as " black." I should nmch like to see 

 the species and decide its natural position. 



Sub-family 3. Nymphalin^, Bates. 

 Journ. Entom. II., p. 176 (1864). 



Genus 3. Pyrameis, Htibner. 

 Vcrz. bek. Schnutt, p. 33 (1816). 



2. Pyrameis Gonerilla. Tab. 8, Jigs. 10, 11. 



Papilio N. G. Gonerilla, Fab., Syst. Ent., p. 498, n. 



