188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



It is gratifying to find that Mr. Quail approves of my treat- 

 ment of the butterflies, and even goes so far as to quote from my 

 account of my transformations of Vanessa gonerilla. These 

 remarks will no doubt be read with amusement by those of your 

 readers who perused my paper on the metamorphosis of this 

 butterfly in the ' Entomologist ' for October, 1883, written from 

 the very town where my critic now resides. 



Mr. Quail protests against "commencing a book with special- 

 ized groups (most recent), and finishing with the most generalized 

 groups (most ancient)." This protest really refers to Mr. Mey- 

 rick's system, and I have explained, as already stated, my reasons 

 for following that system. In connection with the genus Porina, 

 Mr. Quail again asserts that my figures are bad, because they do 

 not exactly agree with the specimens he has in his possession. 

 Here again we have to deal with obscurely marked and variable 

 species which offer great difficulties in the way of representation, 

 and this fact explains why Mr. Quail finds the figures of the 

 Porinas bad, whilst those of the brightly coloured and con- 

 spicuous Hepialus virescens he pronounces as " excellent." I 

 have never given any "hint as to the time occupied in the 

 transformations of H. virescens," simply because I have never 

 had a specimen under observation from the egg state to the 

 imago. In fact, when Mr. Quail has become more intimately 

 acquainted with this insect he will find that the duration of. 

 its larva life is probably considerably longer than two years — 

 probably longer, in fact, than Mr. Quail's residence in New 

 Zealand. As the insect inhabits the stem of a growing tree, 

 the exact duration of its transformation could only be ascer- 

 tained by completely isolating several of the trees which had 

 not been attacked by the larva, and inducing a fertile female 

 moth to deposit her eggs in the enclosure. It would then be 

 necessary to observe the larvae in the trees until their final 

 transformation. This would be a most difficult and extensive 

 experiment, but one of considerable interest, and I trust Mr. 

 Quail will undertake it, and succeed in carrying it out to a 

 successful termination. 



Mr. Quail's description of the tubercles of the larva of Hepialus 

 virescens is no doubt extremely learned and exact, but I hardly 

 think that it would be suited to most of those who are likely to 

 employ my book in New Zealand. There is so much work to be 

 done here, and so few workers to do it, that these extreme 

 niceties of description might well be left to our successors. The 

 fauna is rapidly changing, and in many localities it is vanishing 

 at an alarming rate from a naturalist's point of view ; so that 

 field workers are what we urgently require in New Zealand, who 

 will collect specimens and observe facts before the opportunities 

 for doing so disappear for ever. 



Although adverse to personal controversy in scientific matters, 



