184 [July. wi4. 



the description given as that of the larva of D. plexippus ; also three 

 pupae " short and stumpy, of a pale green colour and dotted with gold 

 on the edge which covers the wings. The Maori to whom, he showed 

 them recognised them as the pupae of the Danais. Unfortunately the 

 rats got at them and destroyed them " These larvae were found on 

 "the Gomphocarpus ovata, one of the milk-producing plants, and a 

 native of the Cape of Good Hope." 



In the same periodical for 1877 (Tr. N. Z. I., vol. X, pp. 276-280) 

 appears an interesting account by the Rev. W. Colenso of his breeding 

 " Danais berenice " from larvae found feeding on some " cotton-plants " 

 grown from seed at Meeanee, HawkeBay. This paper elicited a letter, 

 under date February 17th, 1878, to Mr. Colenso from Mr. P. W. C. 

 Sturm, which appears in full in Tr. N. Z. I., vol. XI, p. 305, and is of 

 very great interest as fixing a fairly definite date when D. plexippus 

 first came under the notice of a competent observer in New Zealand. 

 Mr. Sturm thus writes — " In regard to the butterfly, Danais berenice, 

 or a closely allied species (as per your paper on the same) the first 

 time I saw it was at the Reinga, rip the Wairoa River in Hawke Bay, 

 in December, 1840, or January, 1841. In 1848 I captured a number 

 at the Waiau, a tributary to the Wairoa; I cannot recollect how many, 



but it must have been eight or nine at least Again, in 1861, I 



captured three on the Rangatikei River one of which I have 



still in my collection. Four years back I saw three or four in my 

 garden here and two years ago there was a great number in my 

 gardens, always keeping about the Lombardy poplars and Houheria 



populnea I certainly believe the butterfly to be indigenous and 



not introduced ; and my observations of it fully coincide with yours 

 that while in certain years it is plentiful, in other years it is not to be 

 seen." 



Unless we accept as true the statement made by the Maoi'is to 

 Mr. Meinertzhagen " that the butterfly was there before any white men 

 came," which may point to a still earlier invasion of New Zealand by 

 D. plexippus, Mr. Sturm's record given above is, as far as I can 

 ascertain, the first indication of the great migrations of the insect. 



In more recent years, although D. plexippus has been several times 

 recorded in New Zealand, mainly from the neighbourhood of Cook's 

 Straits (Hudson, New Zealand Moths and Butterflies, pp. 102-3) it 

 seems except in one instance always to have occurred sparingly or 

 singly, and would appear to be barely, if at all, holding its own in the 

 Islands. This exception was at Wanganui (N. I.) in 1894, when 



