112 NEW ZEALAND MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



When feeding, this caterpillar rests on a blade of the tussock, where it is very 

 inconspicuous. It appears to prefer the dead or drier portions of the grass, and 

 feeds and grows very slowly. It is strictly diurnal in its habits, relapsing into a 

 death-like repose at night. 



The pupa is suspended by the tail to an upright blade of the tussock. In the 

 specimen I reared, I was fortunate enough to witness the actual transformation, and 

 during the process, observed it seizing hold of the larval skin with its posterior 

 segments, its manoeuvres whilst thus engaged exactly resembling those of the pupa 

 of Anosia erippus, described above by Professor Kiley. 



The length of the pupa is about J inch. Its colour is bright green, with a 

 reddish line along the edge of each wing-case, and several white lines on the sides 

 and back. 



The perfect insect appears from December till the end of March. It is usually 

 very abundant where found, the males being more numerous than the females in the 

 proportion of about five to one. It flies amongst the tussock grass in a weak and 

 aimless manner. When rapidly pursued it has a habit of plunging into a tussock and 

 closing its wings, where it remains quite invisible until the danger is past. 



The silver stripes on the under side of the hind-wings are very protective to the 

 insect when at rest on its food-plant, the striped coloration of the larva and pupa 110 

 doubt serving similar protective purposes. 



Genus 2. DODONIDIA, Butl. 



Characters as in Argyrophenga, except that vein 11 of the fore-wings rises from upper 

 margin of cell, shortly before transverse vein. 

 We have one species in New Zealand. 



DODONIDIA HELMSI, Fereday. 



(Dodonidia helmsi, Fereday, Trans. N. Z. Inst. xv. 193.) 



(Plate XI., fig. 14, fig. 15 under side ; Plate III., fig. 5 larva, fig. 28 pupa.) 



A single specimen of this interesting butterfly was discovered by Mr. E. Helms, 

 in 1881, on the Paparoa liange, near Grreymouth, at an elevation of about .1,500 

 feet above the sea-level. Until within the last three years only three other specimens 

 had been captured, viz., one near Waiuui-o-mata, in Mr. A. P. Buller's collection; 

 one on the Dun Mountain, Nelson, at an elevation of about 2,500 feet, . which is in 

 my collection ; and one on the Tableland of Mount Arthur, at about 3,300 feet, 

 which was kindly given to me by Mr. C. W. Palmer. In the summer of 1894-95 

 several specimens were captured by Mr. P. Marshall near Wanganui, and during 

 the same season Messrs. Smithers and Hawthorne discovered the insect in considerable 

 abundance at a locality near Silverstrearn, in the Wellington district. During the 

 two following summers additional specimens were obtained near Silverstream, and I 

 was fortunate enough to discover there a number of specimens of the larva, which 

 furnished the material for the illustration and description of the preparatory stages 

 of the insect given in this work. 



The expansion of the wings is about 2 inches. On the upper side all the wings are dark 

 brown The fore-wings have two broad bands of yellowish-orange, the outer one containing a 



* ' Trans. N. Z. Inst.' xxviii. 312. 



