NATURAL HISTORY. 
645 
the kumara grounds,, where this sphoeria is never found. 
The vegetating caterpillar is always met with in the forest 
at the roots of the rata, black maire, and manuka, where the 
sphinx caterpillar is never seen, its Maori name is hotete, 
whilst that of the sphinx is aweto, it therefore most likely 
belongs to the Repialus rubro viridans , which is only found in 
the forest. At Taranaki, there is another caterpillar which 
undergoes a similar change ; it is much smaller than the 
other, being perhaps that of Repialus virescens , but no 
bulrush proceeds from it ; like the other, the body only is 
occupied by the fungus. 
Riptera Simulium, namu, a little black sand-fly, it is most 
abundant and troublesome in sandy places during summer. 
Culex, waeroa, a musquito, is a pest in summer, it is chiefly 
confined to the low lands ; sometimes it disappears entirely 
for several days, according to the state of the weather, and 
then returns with recruited strength and virulence ; the old 
natives affirm it was not indigenous to the country, and 
certainly there is much to support the assertion. A few 
years ago it was not found more than thirty miles inland 
from the sea at Wanganui, it is now as abundant in the 
interior as on the coast. At Auckland a new kind has been 
recently introduced from India, a black and white striped 
one, the zebra musquito, it is said to have arrived in the same 
vessels which brought the military thence. The old settlers 
in Australia likewise entertained the same idea that the mus- 
quito was not indigenous there, but also came from India.* 
It is singular that the Tipula, which is so well known by the 
name of Daddy Long-legs, should have precisely the same 
name amongst the Maori, matua wairoa. 
Musca sarcophaga ; two large meat flies, the blue and 
yellow-bodied, rango and patupaearehe } are both said to be 
introduced from New South Wales, as well as the smaller 
house fly ; the larger being a recent importation from Eng- 
land, its arrival may be dated from the year 1845. The two 
* In a voyage from Sydney to London twelve kinds of insects, beetles, flies, 
&c., of Australia, reached London in good health and sufficient numbers to 
propagate these species ; what an interchange of this kind must be going on ! 
