100 NEW ZEALAND MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



larvae the anal horn is dark red tipped with black, and the skin is covered with numerous 

 fine wrinkles. The length of the caterpillar when full grown is 3i inches. 



About the middle or end of February these larvae generally bury themselves in 

 the ground, where they are transformed into pupae. They remain in that condition until 

 the following summer. 



The pupa is about 2 inches in length and is of a dark mahogany-brown colour. It 

 is furnished with a large curved process, projecting from the lower side of the head, and 

 containing the enormous proboscis of the future moth. 



The perfect insect appears in November and December. It flies with incredible 

 velocity at evening dusk, and is often observed hovering over flowers, and whilst poised 

 in the air above them, extracts the honey with its long proboscis. Mr. A. P. Buller has 

 very kindly furnished me with the following interesting notes on the habits of this 

 species, as observed by him in the Auckland district : 



" During the summer of 1879 I came across 8. convolmdi in great numbers, near 

 Ohinemutu, in the Hot Lake district, frequenting at dusk a tall, delicately perfumed 

 meadow flower (CEnothera biennis, commonly called the evening primrose). They 

 were to be seen on the wing soon after sundown, and on warm, still evenings literally 

 swarmed. It was an extremely pretty sight to watch their rapid movements as they 

 darted from flower to flower, never alighting, and keeping up a constant vibration of 

 their wings as they probed the yellow blossoms. They appeared to be extremely local, 

 for I only met with them on a few of the grassy slopes round the shores of Lake 

 Kotorua. I visited the same locality two years later, at the same season, and only o_ 

 occasionally saw one, although the evening primrose was in full bloom at the time. In 

 1882 I captured several at flowers of the trumpet-tree (Brugmansia) in a garden 

 near Auckland. The same summer I found large numbers of the larvae at Waiwera 

 (near Auckland), on a species of convolvulus growing in profusion on the sandhills 

 in the vicinity. Although the larvae were so abundant I never came across the perfect 

 insect. I obtained some twenty or thirty of the pupas, but unfortunately was never 

 successful in hatching out the imago. As far as my knowledge goes, this beautiful moth 

 is confined to the Auckland and Waikato districts, although I have heard of a single 

 specimen being taken in Hawkes Bay." 



I am also much indebted to Mr. Buller for the loan of a very perfect specimen 

 of this moth, expressly lent to me for figuring and describing in the present work. 



Mr. Meyrick informs us that this insect occurs throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 Australia and the islands of the South Pacific, wherever a suitable situation is found, 

 and has been met with far out at sea.* In America it is represented by a form which 

 seems to be regarded as specifically distinct, but which he thinks is probably identical. 

 If this be the case the insect is practically cosmopolitan. 



* 'Trans. N. Z. Inst.' xxii. 214. 



