CADDIS-FLIES. 67 



During the early summer most streams become very 

 much smaller in volume, and owing to this circumstance 

 many of these groups of fixed cases are left high and 

 dry, and their inmates must consequently meet with an 

 untimely death. In fact, the mortality experienced by 

 the insect from this cause alone must be very considerable. 



The pupa leaves the case by forcing open the lid, 

 which closes its free end. After this is accomplished, it 

 swims about for many hours before the final emergence 

 of the caddis-fly takes place. 



The length of the pupa is about § inch. The head and thorax are pale 

 green, the abdomen bright green. The eyes are prominent, dark reddish- 

 brown ; the mandibles are short, slender, horny, and much curved at the 

 tips. The legs and wings are very delicate in structure, elongate, and semi- 

 transparent. The abdomen has a pair of brown chitinous spots on the back 

 of segments 2, ;3, 4, and 5, and a double pair of such spots on segment 6. 

 The dorsal appendages are slightly chitinous and brown ; the ventral ones 

 semi-transparent. There is an extremely fine black line extending down the 

 side of the abdomen. 



The perfect insect appears from the beginning of 

 November until the end of February. It flies freely at 

 evening dusk, when specimens may often be obtained in 

 considerable numbers. It sometimes happens that females 

 thus captured are found to be carrying their eggs, which 

 are attached to the end of the body, and form a bright 

 green globular mass. 



Genus PYCNOCENTRIA, McLachlan (1866). 



"Head transversely sub-quadrate, with an elongated tubercle on each 

 side. Antennas slender, about the length of the wings ; basal joint thick, 

 hairy, longer than the head. Maxillary palpi in the male 2-jointed, the 

 basal joint very small and concealed, the second long and thick, curved up 

 and furnished with long and strong hairs ; those of the female 5-jointed, the 

 basal joint short, the second long and stout, third equal to the second but 

 thinner, the fourth and fifth shorter, equal. Anterior wings with dense 

 pubescence, dilated before the apex ; in the male there is a longitudinal fold 

 furnished with coarse hairs extending nearly the whole length, and oblitera- 

 ting the discoidal cell ; in the female this fold is absent. Posterior wings 

 shorter and about as broad, obtuse at the apex ; in the male with a longitu- 

 dinal fold. Legs moderately long and slightly hairy ; spurs 2.2. 4, those of 

 the anterior and intermediate tibiae moderately long and unequal, both pairs 

 of the posterior tibiae nearly equal and close together. 



" Distribution. — New Zealand" (Hutton). 



PYCNOCENTRIA FUNEREA. 



Pycnocentria funerea, McLachlan, Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 London, 1866, p. 252. 



This little caddis-fly has occurred at Auckland, 



