4 Transactions. — Zoology. 



of the cell, forming a, secondary cell ; there are, also, two free false veins, 

 often obsolete, one on each side of vein 1, known as la and lb. The 

 structure of the hindwings is the same, except that there are only six veins 

 rising from the cell, or eight altogether. Any two veins may coincide 

 partially, when they appear to rise from a common stalk ; or wholly, when 

 their number appears diminished. In the lowest groups of the Tineina the 

 venation is commonly very incomplete, without any distinct cell. The 

 other points of structure to be especially noted are the form of the labial 

 palpi, the absence or development of the maxillary palpi, the antennae, the 

 scaling of the head (in the Tineina), and some minor details. The legs and 

 abdomen very rarely afford any characters worthy of notice. It must, also, 

 be especially borne in mind that the form of the wings is in general almost 

 valueless for generic distinction and should never be relied on ; but excep- 

 tion may be made in the hindwings of some of the Tineina, which from 

 their great diversity often furnish serviceable points of distinction. The 

 measurements in the following descriptions are given in millimetres (for 

 practical purposes, 25 = 1 inch), which have the advantage of being com- 

 prehensible without confusion in all countries, and are now -very commonly 

 adopted. 



Little need be said of what has been hitherto done in the investigation 

 of the Micro-Lepido'ptera of New Zealand. Doubleday and Zeller have 

 incidentally described a very few, only about a dozen altogether ; their 

 descriptions are excellent and all easily recognizable. I am indebted to 

 Prof. Zeller for sending me his original figures of the New Zealand 

 species of Crambus described by him, to ensure their accurate determin- 

 ation. Felder has figured a small number of species, but as his figures 

 are commonly poor and hard to identify, and his classification wholly 

 conjectural, it would have been better if he had left them alone. Walker, 

 in his British Museum Catalogue, has described a good many ; but his 

 work, as I have elsewhere sufficiently pointed out, is useless for 

 scientific purposes. His descriptions are strictly, almost always quite, 

 unidentifiable ; but I have adopted his specific names from a comparison 

 of the types, when it appeared that the specimens standing as types are 

 really those intended by the description, and when the types are, also, 

 themselves recognizable, which is by no means always the case. But as 

 genera are not realities but abstractions, I have conceived it to be impos- 

 sible to adopt his generic titles, unless the characters given really iudicate 

 the distinctive points of the genus, which hardly ever happens. Latterly 

 Mr. A. G-. Butler, of the British Museum, has turned his attention to these 

 groups, but, I grieve to say, with most unsatisfactory results. For example, 

 as I have pointed out hereafter, he has described three typical species of 



