1 8 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
July, 1921 
practice, the greater attractions of other localities, or 
the unpropitiousness of the seasons, this visit has been 
postponed until the year just past. It would probably 
repay one little to visit Charleville to collect lepidoptera 
in midsummer or midwinter, or during one of the speils 
of drought to which the district is frequently subject. 
But last spring the rainfall had been good, and since the 
winter there had been an extraordinary growth of vege- 
tation following the breaking-up of several years drought, 
I made my trip early in September, collected there 
diligently for five days, from Sept. 8th to Sept. 13th, , and 
thereby gained for the first time a first-hand knowledge 
of the lepidoptera of the interior. 
It must not be supposed that I knew nothing pre- 
viously of the subject. Many years ago a lady visiting 
Cunnamulla sent me many species of moths, the most 
interesting of which was a new bossid, Xyleutes eremon- 
oma , Turn., which Mr. W. W. Frogsratt lias since sent 
me from Brewarinna, in Western New South Wales. 
Some years later I was fortunate in enlisting the services 
of a schoolgirl who spent some months in Adavale and 
sent me many species, including many of the smaller 
kinds, of which several proved to be new species. These 
were taken in the autumn and usefully supplement my 
own collection made in spring. I also received a good 
many species from a young school-teacher at Miles, which 
are, I believe, all inland species, though nearly all of them 
are found also on the coast, but as Miles may be considered 
an intermediate locality, I have not included it in this 
paper. Recently Mr. Taylor has sent me a few species 
from Roma. 
In 1914 I received from Mr. A. M. Lea a collection 
of moths made by Capt. S. A. White during a trip 
through the MeDonnel Ranges, to be worked out for 
publication in the Trans. Roy. Soc., S.A., of the same 
year. Tins journey was made in midwinter during a 
period of drought, Capt, White is an ornithologist. After 
working hard all day he would sit up several hours during 
the night skinning birds, and the moths obtained had 
visited his lamp while he was so engaged. Under the 
circumstances it is not surprising that the collection was 
a small one, but to me it was of great interest, and the 
conclusions I drew from it are closely similar to those 
which I shall submit in this paper. In the following year 
another small collection was received from the same 
source, made during a similar winter trip to the Musgrave 
and Everard Ranges, of north-west South Australia. 
