53 



THE NEW ZEALAND SWIFT. 



The Castnia licus comes from Brazil and Central America. Its coloring is bold and 

 yet simple. The upper surface of the first pair of wings is dark blackish brown shot with 

 green, the latter color being best seen by looking along the wing from point to base. 

 Near the outside edge of the hinder wings is a row of azure spots, and the narrow fringe 

 is white and brown. A bold white band runs through the centre of both pairs of wings. 



THE curious moth in the engraving is a foreign example of a genus well known in 

 England by some curious though common insects belonging to a family called the 

 Hepialidae. In the typical genus the larva is entirely subterranean, feeding on the 

 roots of plants, and, as in some of the preceding insects, the chrysalis is able to ascend 



NEW ZEALAND SWIFT. Heplalus \lrescens. 



its burrow when near the time of assuming the perfect form. All these moths are very 

 quick of wing, darting in a nearly straight line with such swiftness that they look like 

 mere light or dark streaks drawn through the air. Yet they are captured with com- 

 parative ease, as they are not so agile as swift, and can be taken by quickly striking a 

 net athwart x their course. From their great speed, they are known by the popular name 

 of Swifts. 



The NEW ZEALAND SWIFT is a truly curious insect, not so much for its form or colors, 

 but for the strange mischance which often befalls the larva, a vegetable taking the place 

 of the ichneumon-fly, and nourishing itself on the substance of the being which gives it 

 support. A kind of fungus affixes itself to the larva, and becomes developed on its 

 strange bed, taking up gradually the fatty parts and tissues of the caterpillar, until at 

 last the creature dies under the parasitic growth, and is converted almost wholly into 

 vegetable matter. 



