126 NEW ZEALAND MACRO-LEPIDOPTEBA. 



afforded this insect by the case, which it inhabits during its preparatory stages, its 

 enormous mortality from the attacks of a parasitic dipteron (Eurigaster marginatus) 

 is very remarkable. In this connection the following analysis of 38 cases, gathered 

 at random, may be of interest : 

 26 had parasites. 



8 were dead. 



2 contained eggs. 



2 contained living pup*, 1 male and 1 female respectively. 



Amongst some of these parasites I once obtained a specimen, which was in its turn 

 infested by a secondary or hyper-parasite, belonging to the genus Pteromalits, in the order 

 Hymenoptera. Eighteen of these minute insects emerged from a single pupa of E. 

 marginatus. The method by which the Pteromalits introduces its eggs into the dipterous 

 larva, which is in its turn enclosed in a caterpillar, is not at present known to ento- 

 mologists ; but it seems probable that the eggs of the hyper-parasite are either deposited 

 in the eggs of the dipterous insect, or else on the very young larva?, before they penetrate 

 the skin of the caterpillar. 



Genus 2. OKOPHOKA, Fereday. 



" Ocelli present. Antennae f , in male moderately bi-pectinated throughout. Labial palpi rudi- 

 mentary, hairy. Abdomen densely hairy. Fore-wings with veins 4 and 5 short-stalked, 7 and 8 

 out of 9. Hind-wings with veins 4 and 5 stalked, parting-vein well denned, 8 connected by bar with 

 cell beyond middle, and additional vein (9) rising out of 8 before bar." 



We have one species. 



OEOPHOEA UNICOLOK, Butl. 



(Psyche unicolor, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1877, 381. Orophom townatou, Pereday, Trans. 

 N. Z. Inst. x. 262, pi. ix. Orophora unicolor, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xxii. 212.) 



(Plate XIII., fig. is.) 



This odd-looking little insect has been found by Mr. Fereday, at Kakaia. 



The expansion of the wings is hardly 1 inch. All the winys are rather broad, rounded, and rcnj 

 sparsely covered with dnskij brown hair-like scales; the body is very hairy, and the antennae are 

 slightly bi-pectinated. The female is apterous. 



The life-history is thus described by Mr. Fereday: "I have never seen the larva. 

 Its case measures in length about 16 lines (If inches) ; the exterior is covered with pieces 

 of stems of grass from a line to 5 lines in length, laid longitudinally and in the manner 

 of thatch ; the interior is thinly lined with fine silk. The cases are found fixed to the 

 twigs of the Wild Irishman (Discaria toiimatou), but it may be inferred from the 

 covering of the case, that it probably does not feed on the shrub but upon the tussock 

 grass, generally growing where the shrub is found. It is some years since I found the 

 cases on Discaria toumatou, growing in the river-beds of the Kakaia and Waimakariri, 

 on the Canterbury Plains, and I did not find any case in its earlier stage before the larva 

 had fed up and changed into the pupa state." f 



All Mr. Fereday's specimens were bred from the cases, and to the best of my belief 

 no one has ever observed the insect on the wing. It is evidently a very scarce species, 

 and is probably restricted to a few river-beds in the South Island. 



* For further details on this subject see ' The Entomologist,' xiii. 245, and xviii. 159. 

 f 'Trans. N. Z. Inst.' x. (1877), 262. 



