June, 1908.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 33 



Lycsenidae were conspicuous by their absence, with the exception 

 of the ubiquitous Zizera labradus. We took one specimen each of 

 Neolucia serpentata and of N. hobartensis. 



Among the moths the Hydriomenidae, as anticipated, were in 

 great abundance and variety. Quite a number of species 

 restricted to the alpine regions were secured. The showy 

 Hydriomena chrysocyma, previously on record from Kosciusko 

 only, was abundant in spots, and the equally fine H. perornata 

 was met with. H. cataphcea^ polycarpa, stereozona, and the hand- 

 some H. oxygona, were all to be taken, and H. heteroleuca was 

 very abundant, though rather worn. An allied but darker species 

 that I have not yet determined was taken resting on rocks in the 

 steep banks of the coach road, and H. opipara, in poor condition, 

 was also secured. H. ehuleata was, perhaps, with the exception 

 of Agrotis spina, the most abundant moth seen, but was not now 

 at its best. 



Among the loose stones of the cairn crowning the summit of 

 Mt. Hotham, Agrotis spina, the " Bogong " Moth of the blacks, 

 was present in myriads. A knock against the cairn raised a hum 

 like a hive of bees, and every stone dislodged revealed speci- 

 mens. 



Upon the summit of this mountain, also, a number of speci- 

 mens of a dingy but very interesting geometer were taken — a hairy 

 moth, evidently closely allied to the genus Oenone, which 

 Meyrick described from the extreme summit of Mt. Wellington, 

 Tasmania, and of which he wrote : — " Doubtless an early type, 

 having near relationship to Dichromodes on the one hand and 

 to the European Brephos on the other. It would appear to have 

 been brought into close comj^etition with the ancestors of 

 Dichromodes, and to have been worsted, surviving only in the 

 mountains of Tasmania. Similarly Brephos has maintained 

 itself in Europe only by becoming adapted to the wintry climate 

 of the earliest spring." 



The Mt. Hotham species is a very strong flier, keeps close to 

 the herbage, and from its obscure black and grey colouring is 

 somewhat difficult to follow and capture. 



In " plumes " we came across the whitish alpine species, 

 Mimeseoptilus' celidotus, and also the better-known Platyptilia 

 emissalis. Down in a densely wooded gully, beating the occa- 

 sional tea-tree along the small stream, I disturbed the pretty 

 Euchloris hoisduvalaria and Asthena balioloma, A. ocea^iias, and 

 A. %irarclia. Here, too, I took several specimens of the pretty 

 monoctenid, Onycliodes traumataria ; this, as it floats down from 

 the boughs of the tea-tree, bears a very strong resemblance, not 

 only in colour and shape but also in movement, to the coloured 

 eucalypt leaves that are dislodged at the same time. 



Being so near the summit of the Alps, and the hillsides being 

 so steep, the collecting conditions were not of the best. Except- 



