76 [AprU, 



most singuliir knobbed and sinnose forms {Seal opt ems, Ancistropterus, 

 Nyxetes, Oropterus, EtnpcBotes, Inophloeus, Eugnomus, and the sint,'ularly 

 beautiful Amylopterus prasinus, Br.), with many small species allied to 

 Erirrhinus, &c. ; and under logs various curious and protective-looking 

 forms {Phrynixus, Catopte^, more Acalles, &c.) may be found by dili- 

 gent search. Several very interesting Cossonidce, as well as Scolytid(B 

 {Stenopus, Pnchycotes, Tomicus, and Platypus), are met with in timber 

 in various stages of decay. 



I occasionally varied my bush collecting by a walk to Lyall Bay, 

 a fine curved beach of dark sand opening on Cook's Strait, where a 

 good many insects which did not occur elsewhere could be found. 

 Here, throughout the year, and usually in company with two or three 

 good-sized species of Gafius, the stout pallid Heteromeron, Ghoerodes 

 trachyscelides. White, may be obtained in almost any number under 

 seaweed, often at a considerable depth m the wet sand. Dead fish 

 and other refuse produce three fine species of Ilisferidce, Saprinus 

 pseudocyaneus. White, Pachylopus lepidulus, Br. (not very unlike 

 our Saprinus 4^-striatus, Hoff.), and, very rarely, the most singular 

 P. pedator, Sharp, with its enormously developed hind femora and 

 spiny fossorial tibiae. At the roots of bent-grass, the curious little 

 Heteromeron, Lagrioida hrouni, Pasc, is often common, and in damp 

 saline places I met with the anomalous blind Lamellicorn, Phycochics 

 graniceps, Br., for the first time in my visit to New Zealand, in October, 

 1901. It is superficially like a small shining species of ^gialia* Ou 

 the sandhills at the back of the beach are found Lcemosthenes compla- 

 natus, Dej. (a common New Zealand insect), " Calathus'' zealandicus, 

 Kedt.,the elegant Gtenognathus (Ancliomenus) actochares, Br., Hypliar- 

 pax ahstrusus, Bates, and other small Carabidce ; Cilihe elongata, Breme, 

 an Asida-\ike Heteromeron, is abundant under stones, and Procto- 

 phones sculptus, Hope, an introduction from Australia, occurs here in 

 cow-dung with our familiar Aphodius granarius, L. A very pretty 

 little Cossonid weevil, Microtrihus hultoni, Woll., is found abundantly 

 in the dry debris of the native flax, PJiormium tenax. 



Wellington does not appear to be a particularly good place for 

 butterflies, and in all my visits I saw only the two common and widely 

 distributed species, Pyrameis qoneriUa, Fab., and CJiry soph anus saUis- 

 fius, F. The rarest and most beautiful of all the New Zealand butter- 

 flies, Dodonidia helmsi, Fereday, is found at Silverstream, in the 

 Hutt Valley, eighteen miles from "Wellington, and Mr. Hudson has 



* This remarkable little beetle is also found in Tasmania. I took a single example on the 

 beach at Sandy Bay, Ilobart, ou June 30th, 1901, and it has since been obtained sparingly in the 

 same spot at the roots of bent-grass, in company with an allied but distinct sijecies (P. sidcatus, 

 Lea, MS.) by Mr. A. M. Lea and myself.— J. J. W. 



