88 NEW ZEALAND ENTOMOLOG Y. 



during the day and always taken in great numbers on 

 various blossoms in the eveping. 



The caterpillar is extremely variable, the colouring of 

 different individuals being apparently much influenced by 

 their surroundings ; those specimens, for instance, taken 

 from the pale green foliage of the mahoe (M. ramiflorus) 

 resemble in colour the twigs of that plant, while others 

 captured feeding on the white rata (Metrosideros scandens] 

 are dark reddish brown. Fig. 8b is drawn from a larva 

 found on the fuchsia, which, when in its favourite position, 

 viz., sticking straight out from the side of a branch, is so 

 much like one of the sprouting twigs that it absolutely 

 defies detection. When full-grown this insect buries itself 

 about two inches in the earth, where it shortly becomes a 

 dark chestnut-brown pupa, lighter between the segments. 

 The time required for the development of the perfect insect 

 depends upon the season, larvae which undergo their trans- 

 formations in the spring developing much more rapidly 

 than those that feed up in the autumn. 1 



This insect is extremely variable, having been formerly 

 divided into several distinct species ; the two most usual 

 forms are those shown at Figs. 8 and 8a, but every 

 intermediate variety exists. The sexes are distinguished by 

 the usual differences in the antennae. My experience leads 

 me to believe that the light varieties occur more frequently 

 in the female than in the male sex, and also that the 

 dark larvae give rise to dark moths, and vice versd, 

 although a great many more specimens will have to 

 be reared before these can be regarded as established 

 facts. 



1 On one occasion I enclosed a full-grown caterpillar of this in- 

 sect in a pot of earth with a recently formed Noctua pupa, whose 

 internal portions it immediately devoured, employing the empty 

 shell of the unfortunate chrysalis as a cocoon. It is impossible 

 to say whether this horrible proceeding often occurs in a state of 

 nature. 



