1904.] 117 



celator, Paac, occur sparingly. In March, 1903, a small quantity of 

 vegetable debris and leaf-mould hastily collected in a little patch of 

 bush at the foot of Mount Eden yielded a very nice lot of beetles, 

 including the small Coprid, Sapliohius squanmlosus. Br., EncephaJus 

 latulus, Br., and a very fine Homalota-WVe form, " Oyropheena " corni- 

 gera, Br., the $ of which has a prominent upright horn on the first 

 and fourth abdominal segments, all in some numbers ; with, more 

 rarely, Wakefieldia vittata, Br., the anomalous minute Elater, Amphi- 

 platys lawsoni, Janson, the very curious C/ioJeva-Vike Camiarus thora- 

 cicus, Sharp, and some interesting Pselaphidce, weevils, &c. 



There are some excellent sandy beaches near Auckland, especially 

 north of the harbour's mouth, and on these Chcerodes trachyscelides. 

 White, much more variable in colour and marking than at Wellington, 

 may be found abundantly at high-tide mark, with its much smaller 

 but very similar relative C. Icefus. Br., in almost equal numbers. 

 Cafius includes the very singular C. caviceps, Br., in the ^ of which 

 the forehead is deeply hollowed out ; this species was found by 

 Dr. Swale under stones embedded in the sand, and I met with it 

 rarely at Waimati Island in the Hauraki Gulf. 



I saw but few butterflies at Auckland, though three species were 

 not observed by me elsewhere in New Zealand. These were Pi/rameis 

 cardui var. kershawi, McCoy, P. ifea, Fab., and Junonin vellidn, L. 

 All three were very scarce, but I found P. itea on the summit of 

 Mount Eden flying in company with P. gonerilla, and secured two fine 

 specimens. A rather dull form of the little Lyccena phoehe, Murray, a 

 very widely distributed species in the Australian region, was common 

 in grassy waste places, and was observed at Rotorua in great numbers 

 in March, 1903 ; and Cln'ysoplinnus sahistius, Eab., larger and ])aler 

 than in more southern localities, occuri'cd rather sparingly. 



Several very interesting |excursions were made from Auckland 

 during my visits to that port. The first of these, on January 21st, 

 1902, was to Woodhills, thirty-two miles north of the city by rail, and 

 it introduced me to the most extensive and highest coast sandhills I 

 have ever seen. A belt of these sand-dunes, several miles wide in 

 parts, fringes the west coast of the northern peninsula with very few 

 interruptions from Manukau Harbour to the North Cape, a distance 

 of little less than 200 miles. At Woodhills, these hills of clean white 

 sand are three miles in width, and sometimes 300 feet high, and I 

 found it very trying work tramping across them to the coast under a 

 hot sun. The beautiful little Cicindela perJiispida, Br., by far the 

 most active of the New Zealand species of its genus, was very 



