139 



of insects found in New Zealand, biit I am sure that must be very mucli under 

 the number, because he puts the Lepidoptera down at fifty-five, and I feel 

 certain that that order has many more species. 



There are sixty-six species of British butterflies, while the moths number 

 nearly two thousand. I have myself observed in Otago alone, four or five 

 species of butterflies, and more than twenty species of moths, but as to the 

 numbers I have captured I cannot speak positively, for my entire collection 

 has unfortunately been recently completely destroyed. 



Of the butterflies, the most striking, and one of the commonest, is a repre- 

 sentative of the Vanessidi. This butterfly is almost an exact facsimile of the 

 English Atalanta, or red admiral, which it resembles both in the deep black 

 grounding and brilliant scarlet bands of the upper side, as well as in the 

 beautiful pencilled tracery of browns and greys underneath. It is the earliest 

 of our butterflies ; I have observed an early specimen flitting about among the 

 spring flowers on a blight day towards the end of August or beginning of 

 September. On catching any of these, the wings generally present a very 

 torn and tarnished appearance, so that I have little doubt they hybernate. 

 There are probably two broods of them in each year — one leaving the chrysalis 

 about midsummer, and the other in the autumn. I do not know iipon what 

 the larvse of this butterfly feed, nor, indeed, do I know the food of the larvae 

 of any of the New Zealand Lepidoptera, for I have never reared them ; but I have 

 never seen any caterpillars which at all resemble those of the same family 

 found in Britain. 



The genus Pieris, which includes some of the commonest British species, 

 is, so far as I know, without a single ISTew Zealand i-epresentative. Another 

 butterfly common in the neighbourhood of Dunedin is one which, I think, 

 belongs to the Satiridi, some members of which family it greatly resembles on 

 the upper side, though the under side has silvery markings, which in England 

 are peculiar to the Argynnidi. I am, however, almost certain that there is a 

 Fritillary to be found in Otago ; for one day, in the interior of the province, 

 I saw a butterfly, which, both by its general appearance and style of flight, led me 

 to believe that it must be referred to that genus. Some of the species of these 

 butterflies ai'e so exceedingly local in their habits that we might have several 

 forms, and yet they might not be discovered for a long time, even if there 

 were many collectors. 



There is another very pretty little butterfly which is not uncommon ; it 

 bears a strong resemblance to the small cojjper Chrysoplianus pthlceas of Britain, 

 though it is rather larger. The genus Polyoinmatus has one, if not two, species ; 

 one resembles the P. Artaxerxes, with a tinge of blue, and the other has more 

 blue, but whether these are distinct species or merely varieties, I cannot 

 decide, even possibly it is only the difierence of the sexes. These lively little 

 butterflies are widely spi-ead over the open grass lands, and numbers of them 



