I, No. 3, JULY, 1884] 
TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW 
Pian) Nott UTE, 1883, VoL. XVI... WEL- 
LINGTON, MAY, 1884. 
re 
The sixteenth volume of the “ Transactions” is now being 
issued to the members of the affiliated societies. The work is 
fully up to the standard size, containing as it does some six 
hundred pages, and it is illustrated by forty-four plates. Zoolo- 
gical papers occupy the lion’s share of the allotted space, pro- 
bably because the field to be worked out is larger than that of 
almost any other branch, or at any rate more within the grasp 
of the average worker. In this subject the systematic papers of 
Mr. Meyrick on Lepidoptera, of Mr. Maskell on Coccide, of 
‘Prof. Hutton on Mollusca, and of Messrs. Chilton and Thomson 
on Crustacea and Pycnogonide, are all valuable additions to our 
knowledge of the New Zealand Fauna. 
Mr. Meyrick’s first paper, entitled “ Descriptions of New Zea- 
land Micro-Lepidoptera,”’ deals with the family C&cophoride 
alone, of which 55 species, belonging to 14 genera are described ; 
while some 12 already described species, but of doubtful identifi- 
cation are dealt with in an appendix. The most generally inte- 
resting point in connection with this family is the remarkable 
number of endemic forms which it presents. Mr. Meyrick finds 
very little connection between the species of New «Zea- 
land and those of Australia, and in the absence of more 
complete knowledge of the Lepidoptera-fauna of Polynesia 
and South America, is inclined to refer the origin of our 
forms to a very distant period of time. From the circumstances 
under which Mr. Meyrick’s collections were made, it follows 
that the list of species cannot be by any means complete, but 
this and his two preceding papers form a valuable compendium 
to anyone beginning to work up this group. In the same 
author’s ‘Monograph of the New Zealand Geometrina,” a total 
of 90 species (of which 30 are new) belonging to 41 genera are 
described, while some 28 doubtful species are referred to in the 
appendices, together with some remarks on the larve of dubious 
species. The present state of knowledge of the relationships of 
this group is too fragmentary yet to be of much value, but the 
general conclusion arrived at is on the whole similar to that ar- 
rived at in the case of the C&cophoride, namely that the larger 
genera are old forms which have had time to undergo great 
specific development, while the smaller genera appear to have 
Australian or South American affinities, and to be of much more 
recent introduction. Both Mr. Meyrick’s papers have brief diag- 
nostic tables of genera and species, which will greatly aid in the 
identification of specimens. In this connection we would refer 
our readers to Mr. Purdie’s notes in the present issue. 
