82 NEW ZEALAND ENTOMOLOGY. 



white, the spiracles being white with black rings ; a reddish 

 blotch also adorns each of the three thoracic segments. It 

 feeds voraciously on geraniums, tomatoes, peas, and many 

 other garden plants, where it often commits the most serious 

 ravages. About the end of April it is full-grown, when it 

 descends to the ground and buries itself two or three inches 

 below the surface. In this situation it is shortly transformed 

 into a pupa, remaining in that state until the following 

 summer, when the moth appears. The sexes of this insect 

 differ considerably, the male having the fore-wings of a 

 ruddy-brown colour, sometimes inclining to orange, while 

 in the female they are pale ochreish ; both sexes are, how- 

 ever, subject to considerable variation, and the figure (4) is 

 taken from a rather dark male specimen. 



Family NOCTUID^E. 



Plusia eriosoma (Plate X., fig. 8, 8a larva). 



An abundant species round Nelson, where almost any 

 number may be taken hovering over flowers on a still 

 summer's evening. In Wellington it occurs occasionally. 

 The larva (Fig. 8a) is a pseudo-geometer, having twelve 

 legs, and thus showing a strong affinity with the next 

 family. In colour it is pale green, darker on the dorsal 

 surface than elsewhere. A white line runs down each side, 

 and the whole insect is covered with black dots and bristles. 

 The colouring of different individuals varies in intensity, and 

 a fainter white line, above the usual one, exists in some 

 specimens. It feeds on beans, geraniums, and many other 

 imported plants, and is doing much good in the Nelson gar- 

 dens by the havoc which it is committing among the Scotch 

 thistles — weeds equally injurious to the agriculturalist and 

 the gardener, not only crowding out useful plants, but 

 rapidly exhausting the soil in which they grow. Formerly 

 this insect must have fed exclusively on the New Zealand 



