126 NEW ZEALAND MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



afforded this insect by the case, which it inhabits during its preparatory stages, its 

 enormous mortality from the attacks of a parasitic dipteron (Eurigaster marginattcs) 

 is very remarkable. In this connection the following analysis of 38 cases, gathered 

 at random, may be of interest : — 

 2(3 had parasites. 



8 were dead. 



2 contained eggs. 



2 contained living pupa?, 1 male and 1 female respectively. 

 Amongst some of these parasites I once obtained a specimen, which was in its turn 

 infested by a secondary or hyper-parasite, belonging to the genus Pterornalus, in the order 

 Hymenoptera. Eighteen of these minute insects emerged from a single pupa of E. 

 man/matus. The method by which the Pterornalus introduces its eggs into the dipterous 

 larva, which is in its turn enclosed in a caterpillar, is not at present known to ento- 

 mologists; but it seems probable that the eggs of the hyper-parasite are either deposited 

 in the eggs of the dipterous insect, or else on the very young larva*, before they penetrate 

 the skin of the caterpillar.' 5 



Genus 2.— OROPHORA, Fereday. 



"Ocelli present. Antennae f, in male moderately ln-pectinated throughout. Labial palpi rudi- 

 mentary, hairy. Abdomen densely hairy. Fore-wings with veins 4 and 5 short-stalked, 7 and 8 

 out of 9. Hind-wings with veins 4 and .'» stalked, parting-vein well defined, 8 connected by liar with 

 cell beyond middle, and additional vein (9) rising out of 8 before bar." 



We ha vi' one species. 



OEOPHOKA UNICOLOE, Butl. 



{Psyche unicolor, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1877, 381. Orophora toumatou, Fereday, Trans. 



N. Z. Inst. x. 262, pi. ix. Orophora. unicolor, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xxii. 211) 



(Plate XIII., fig. 7 <?.) 



This odd-looking little insect has been found by Mr. Fereday, at Rakaia. 



The expansion of the wings is hardly 1 inch. All the wings are rather broad, rounded, and very 

 sparsely covered with dusky brown hair-like scales; the body is very hairy, and the antenna? are 

 slightly bi-pectinated. The female is apterous. 



The life-history is thus described by Mr. Fereday: "I have never seen the larva. 

 Its case measures in length about Hi lines ( L| inches) ; the exterior is covered with pieces 

 of stems of grass from a line to 5 lines in length, laid longitudinally and in the manner 

 of thatch; the interior is thinly lined with tine silk. The cases are found fixed to the 

 twigs of the Wild Irishman (Discaria toivmatoa), but it may be inferred from the 

 covering of the case, that it probably does not feed on the shrub but upon the tussock 

 grass, generally growing where the shrub is found. It is some years since I found the 

 cases on Discaria toumatou, growing in the river-beds of the Rakaia and Wairnakariri, 

 on the Canterbury Plains, and I did not find any case in its earlier stage before the larva 

 had fed up and changed info the pupa state." \ 



All Mr. Fereday's specimens were bred from the eases, and to the best of my belief 

 no one has ever observed the insect on the wing. It is evidently a very scarce species, 

 and is probably restricted to a. few river-beds in the South Island. 



For further details on this subject iee 'The Entomologist,' mm. 245, and xviii. 159. 



I "Trans. N. Z. Inst.' x. (1877), 262. 



