Vol. xxviir. 



igii 



] DoDD, A Collecting Trip to Herberton District, N.Q. 137 



new Xyloryctid was bred from the gummy bark of the Scented 

 Gum, Eucalyptus citriodora. Micro-lepidoptera were in great 

 force just before the wet weather set in. and I was able to make 

 a fine collection of them. 



That common but large and showy day-flying moth, 

 Nyctlemon orontes, was in thousands in the hills, and was re- 

 ported from several localities At the same time (January and 

 February) it abounded in the Kuranda district, and almost 

 every day since I came home it has been passing over in great 

 numbers. I • hope some day to prepare some notes on this 

 interesting moth, which, by non-entomological observers, is 

 generally spoken of as a butterfly. The great flights of butter- 

 flies frequently recorded in North Queensland are merely every- 

 day flights of this moth. The following paragraph appeared 

 in the Cairns Post of 5th June : — " Picnickers to Second Beach 

 yesterday witnessed a rather pretty sight in the shape of a 

 thick flock of butterflies, which settled on the vegetation along 

 the banks of the creek which runs towards the Gorge. The 

 place was thick with butterflies, which remained there all day. 

 These have been seen in the locality on previous occasions, but 

 never in such numbers as witnessed yesterday." The so-called 

 butterflies were all specimens of Nyctlemon orontes. A somewhat 

 similar paragraph was published in April, just after the great 

 rains, but it has been mislaid. 



At this time we had just experienced the five days' rain which 

 had had such disastrous effects upon the Cairns railway (Kuranda 

 recorded 85 inches for the five days). After the deluge butter- 

 flies were conspicuous by their absence ; not so A^". orontes. It 

 was passing over as freely as ever, doubtless coming from a 

 locality beyond the influence of the cyclone, and the accom- 

 panying phenomenal rainfall. 



Remarkable butterflies do not occur in great numbers any- 

 where in the north, and especially in the Atherton district, 

 notwithstanding the report of a southern egg-collector that 

 they were of extraordinary brilliance, and occurred in vast 

 numbers. They cannot compare in numbers with those of an 

 ordinary coastal district in tropical Queensland. No fine 

 species occur there that are not represented on the coast, and 

 the butterflies he saw passing over one day were merely flights 

 of the Nyctlemon. Lepidopterists should know this, and 

 oologists should know that nests and eggs are no more plentiful 

 or more difficult to find there than in any other tropical scrub. 



CoLEOPTERA. — Beetles were by no means plentiful in scrub or 

 forest. Of course, we secured some fine species, but at the 

 expense of much wandering, searching, and a little climbing. 

 What few flowering trees there were were too tall, thin, or 

 straggling to be profitably climbed and worked, and one of 



