644 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
binger of it. There are four kinds, two large and two 
small, all are distinguished by three bright red transparent 
spots set in a triangle on the forehead, like brilliant rubies. 
One of the larger kind is green, the other green and black ; 
one of the smaller is a bright green with a silver line down 
the ridge of the back ; they make a very loud grating noise, 
and generally in concert, beginning and stopping together. 
The Maori compare the sound to the English language, hence 
they call it he reo kihi kihi , the cicada’s language, and thus 
they name the European, he kihikihi, a cicada. They have 
likewise a proverb amongst themselves, me he kihi kei te warn , 
like the cicada in summer, a proverb for a noisy party. The 
cicada is sometimes found with a parasitical plant growing 
out of it, Sphoeria Basilii. 
Hemiptera. A large black forest bug, ke keriru , is fully an 
inch-and-a-half long ; the effluvia emitted by it is extremely 
powerful and offensive. There are several smaller kinds, 
Kiriwhenua, all more or less distinguished by their odour. 
Lepidoptera. Pepepe, Pepe atua. The butterflies of New 
Zealand are few in species and number, the varieties are 
not more than eight or ten, of these the most common and 
finest are the vanessa Gonerilla , vanessa Itea and cynthia 
cardui, which is identical with that of Australia and Europe. 
The Diadema auge is, perhaps, the rarest and finest of all, 
it is a brown butterfly, with four large white eyes or spots, 
tinged with purple. The Polyommatus edna, also closely 
resembles one of our European butterflies ; these with a 
small blue argus are the chief kinds. 
Of the moths Pepe , the Hepialus rubro viridans , is the 
largest and finest, it measures nearly six inches across, from 
the tip of one wing to the other. The Erebus, Parikori-taua, 
is conspicuous by two eyes on its wings ; the nyctemera is 
identical with that of Australia. 
There are two kinds of the sphinx, the largest is the 
sphinx convolvuli. The Sphoeria Robertii is said to be para- 
sitical on the caterpillar of the sphinx, but it is quite a 
different shaped one, as it has no horn on its extremity as 
that of the sphynx caterpillar, which likewise never leaves 
