﻿Fereday. — Oil the Lepidoptera of New Zealand. 215 



In the pi-eface to the first edition of " Kirby and Spence's Entomology," 

 the writer, referring to the vahie of the study of entomology in the education 

 of youth, says, " All modern writers on this momentous subject unite in 

 recommending, in this view, natural history ; and, if ' the quality of accurate 

 discrimination, the ready perception of resemblances amongst diversities, and, 

 still more, the quick and accurate perception of diversity in the midst of 

 resemblances, constitute one of the most important operations of the under- 

 standing ; if it be indeed the foundation of clear ideas, and the acquisition 

 of whatever can be truly called knowledge depends most materially on the 

 possession of it ;' if ' the best logic be that which teaches us to suspend our 

 judgments,' and ' the art of seeing, so iiseful, so universal, and yet so 

 uncommon,' be 'one of the most valuable a man can possess,' there can be no 

 doubt of the judiciousness of their advice. Now, of all the branches of 

 natural history, entomology is unquestionably the best fitted for thus disci- 

 plining the mind of youth." 



It will be digressing too much from the particular object of this paper to 

 enter further into the ■merits of entomology, a subject which you will find 

 fully and powerfully, and, in fact, exhaustively argued in the work to which 

 I have just referred. 



The title of Mx*. Bathgate's paper has reference only to the Lepidoiitera 

 of Otago, but we find his remarks extend to ISTew Zealand generally, and to 

 other insects besides Lepidoptera. 



Of the insects inhabiting Otago I have no personal knowlege, never having 

 had an opportunity of visiting that province, and it must therefore be under- 

 stood that I have no intention of questioning any of Mr. Bathgate's state- 

 ments which relate solely to that province. 



In referring to the niggardliness of nature in pi'oviding for New Zealand, 

 Mr. Bathgate says, '' She has been far from liberal so far as insects are con- 

 cerned." This, T think, is a mistake, unless he compares New Zealand with 

 a tropical covmtry. It is true that certain classes of insects are extremely 

 poorly represented ; for instance, the Diurnal Lepidoptera (butterfiies). But, 

 on the other hand, there are others which are abundant ; and I believe that, 

 if New Zealand were thoroughly searched, it would be found anything but 

 poor in insect fauna. 



It must be remembered that the insects we see flying and creeping about 

 in the daytime, are not a tithe of those which exist around vis. Anyone 

 camping out in New Zealand will have observed in his tent the swarms of 

 moths attracted at night by the candle-light, sometimes to such an extent as 

 to nearly extinguish the candles. 



Of the Nocturnal Lepidoptera (moths), the families Pyralidcn, and Cra.mhidce 

 appear to me to be abundantly represented both in genera and species, and 



