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The Lepidoptera of Broken Hill, New South Wales. 



PART I. 



By Oswald B. Lower, F.Z.S., F.E.S., etc. 

 [Eead October 14, 1915.] 



The Broken Hill district is a dry belt of country situated 

 about 334 miles from Adelaide, the nearest coastal port being 

 Port Pirie, about 250 miles distant. The rainfall has an 

 average of about 8 inches. The surface of the district con- 

 -sists of low ranges of hills, with intervening sandy alluvial 

 plains, the rocks exposed being largely composed of' an ancient 

 system of limestone and boulder beds, and although the dis- 

 trict has been characterized as a desert, the appellation is a 

 misnomer, as during a good rainy season the herbage flourishes 

 to an astonishing degree of prolific activity. 



The flora is largely composed of representatives of the 

 Cruciferae (Blen^iodia, etc.), Malvaceae (Lavatera, Goni- 

 phrena, etc.), Mi/ojyorinae fErefuojjhilaJ, Sapindaceae 

 (Dodonoea), Salsolaceae (Kochia, Bassia), Compositae (Heli- 

 <ihrysum), Leguminosae (Cassia, Acacia), Myrtaceae, the 

 mulga (Acacia aneura), and gum. Eucalyptus rostrata, being 

 predominant in the area under notice, whilst the generic 

 names in parentheses indicate those more commonly met with. 



The climate during the summer period, i.e., November to 

 February, is rather trying, but the remainder of the year is 

 mild and bracing, the mean temperature being, according to 

 J. B. Jacquet, about 655° F. 



The insect fauna is tolerably well represented ; amongst 

 the Neuroptera, Orthoptera, and Myrmelionidae I have 

 secured several novelties. The Coleoptera are mostly repre- 

 sented by members of the Carahidae, Tenehrionidae, Bupres- 

 tidae, Curculionidae, and Scarahaeidae . The Lepidoptera 

 of the district is particularly interesting, affording, as it does, 

 an insight into the peculiar, and in many instances probably 

 locally endemic, species of this hitherto unexplored region. 

 It has produced some startling discoveries, not only in the 

 large percentage of new species, but in the geographical dis- 

 tribution of others well known. A large proportion of the 

 species herein enumerated are to the best of my knowledge 

 -endemic of the district, and the number of new genera and 

 species adduce an important aspect as to what the inland 

 portion of the continent may be expected to yield during 

 the course of further search. One noticeable characteristic 



