New Zealand Lepidoptera from an evolutionary standpoint, 

 as well as of their geographical relations with the insect 

 faunae of other regions in the Southern Hemisphere, are 

 clearly shown in this series of masterly papers, my indebtedness 

 to which in this Address I here gratefully acknowledge. 



The number of species of Lepidoptera at present known 

 from the New Zealand region reaches the respectable total 

 of 1078, and their distribution among the principal sections 

 of the Order is shown in the following Table. 



TABLE OF NEW ZEALAND LEPIDOPTEKA 



Division or Family. 



Genera. Species 



Rhopalocera . . . . 

 Sphingina . . . . 

 Arctiidae and Hypsidae 

 Noctuina . . . . 

 Geometrina . . . . 

 Pyralidina . . . . 

 Tortricina . . . . 



Tineina 



Psychidae .» . . . 

 Hepialidae . . . . 

 Micropterygidae . 



Total . . . . 



15 



2 



5 



109 



219 



21G 



115 



364 



2 



18 



13 



210 



204 



109 



344 



2 



18 



13 



222 



1078 



82 1007 



Even in comparison with the general paucity of butterflies 

 in the extra-tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere, the 

 number of species found in New Zealand is exceptionally 

 small for its area. Only fourteen species (or fifteen if we 

 include the intrusive and perhaps not fully naturalised 

 Danaida plexippus L.) may be regarded as permanent resi- 

 dents; and these belong to only four main divisions, the 

 almost universally distributed Papilioninae, Pierinae, Eryci- 

 ninae, and Hesperinae being totally unrepresented. Three of 

 the five Vanessids, Precis villida F., Pyrameis ilea F., and the 

 almost ubiquitous Pyrameis cardui L. (var. Jcershaivii McCoy), 

 are well-known Australian forms, and the irregularity of their 

 occurrence in different years suggests the probability that in 



