18 Transactions. — Zoology. 



spot on costa ; an irregularly dentate dark fuscous transverse line from 

 costa at § to inner margin at f-, followed by a pale line, suddenly bent out- 

 wards beneath costa, upper two-thirds rather strongly outwards-curved ; a 

 pale oblique mark on costa before apex, and a pale mark on anal augle : 

 cilia grey-whitish, with two dark fuscous lines. HindwiDgs grey, with a dark 

 grey hindmarginal line ; cilia grey- whitish, with a dark grey line towards base. 



Very distinct by its small size, grey colouring, and black linear discal 

 spot. 



I met with this species at Dunedin, Wellington, and Cambridge, amongst 

 scrub in January. Mr. E. W. Fereday has taken it commonly at Christ- 

 church at rest on old walls, and has furnished me with the following notes 

 on the larva, which he finds in the same position. They are specially 

 interesting, as this is the first larva of the genus which has been discovered. 



" The full-grown larva about 9 lines in length, slender, rather flattened, 

 wrinkled, of nearly uniform width, much contracted at the segmental 

 divisions ; the ground-colour varying from pale stone to ash- colour ; down 

 the middle of the back, on the fifth to the ninth segment inclusive, a series 

 of dark purplish-brown or maroon marks, wedge-shaped, with the point of 

 each wedge cleft, and somewhat resembling a W with the internal space 

 filled up, and having the base of the wedge abutting on the anterior and 

 the cleft end on the posterior extremity of the segment ; a cream-coloured 

 tubercular dot at the point of the cleft, and on the base of each dark mark 

 a pair of similar but rather smaller dots ; head dark, with a pale longi- 

 tudinal stripe. 



" Feeds on moss on damp walls ; when at rest lies stretched out flat on 

 the moss, and entirely exposed ; forms in the moss a cocoon covered with 

 dust and moss, hardly distinguishable." 



Ceambus, F. 



Antenna? of male finely ciliated, rarely pectinated (not in New Zealand 

 species). Labial palpi very long, attenuated. Forewings with 12 veins 

 (rarely 11 through obsolescence of vein 9), 8 and 9 stalked, rising out of 7 

 (rarely 6 also rising out of 7). Hindwings with 8 veins, 4 and 5 usually 

 stalked or from a point, 6 approximated at base to 7, 7 and 8 stalked, cell 

 open. 



Distinguished from all the other New Zealand genera of the family by 

 the origin of the stalk of 8 and 9 out of 7, the close basal approximation of 

 6 and 7 in the hindwings, and the open cell. The genus is a very large 

 one, being plentifully represented all over the world except in Australia, 

 where it is almost absent. The larvae feed amongst the roots of grass, and 

 the perfect insects frequent dry grassy situations, and when met with are 

 often very abundant. 



