444 
NEW ZEALAND 
Napier (North Island), lat. 39° 31' S. 
January 28th, 1910. 
From Wellington we went to Auckland by sea, and as the steamer 
called at Napier, we got an afternoon’s collecting there. Acting on 
the advice of Mr. A. Hamilton, of the Dominion Museum, we made 
for a place where he told me that Pyrameis itea , Fabr., occurred, 
viz. a footpath from the Shakespear Eoad up the back of the Bluff. 
It was a steep track above a quarry, bordered on either hand by 
abundance of flowers, Bed Valerian ( Gentranthus ruber) among them. 
One might have been climbing a chalk down in Surrey or Sussex. 
The abundance of a dark-flowered Scabious ( Scabiosa atropurpurea), 
which had doubtless escaped from some neighbouring garden, helped 
to dispel the illusion, yet *Mnesictena flavidalis, Doubl., a small, 
dark specimen, might perhaps have passed for an English Pyrale, or 
Emmiltis rubraria for an English Acidalia , but the Lycaenids fell 
far short of the beauty of our Chalk-hill Blue, or even our Common 
Blue. * Chrysophanus sallustius was fairly abundant, but the dingy 
Zizera labradus, God art (the Lycaena phoebe , Murray, of Mr. Hud¬ 
son’s book), was to be had in still larger numbers. I saw three or 
four * Pyrameis gonerilla , Fabr., but not a sign of P. itea. A solitary 
*Deilemera annulata put in an appearance. The pretty, day-flying 
Acronyctid, well-named Cosmodes elegans, Don., a species that is 
commoner in Australia, greatly delighted me; it is neatly marked 
with green and white. The only example of the cosmopolitan 
Plusia chalcites , Esp., that I have ever happened upon was, unfortu¬ 
nately, so worn as to have lost all its beauty; it might easily have 
been mistaken for gamma. Mrs. Longstaff found at rest upon a 
stone a very cryptic Geometer, Phrissogonus laiicostatus , Walk. The 
vulgar Eristalis tenax and an active Homopteron completed my bag. 
Mrs. Longstaff could find no Mollusca save Helix aspersa , the type 
and the variety fasciata , Pic. 
Two moths came to the lights of the “ Mokoia ” as she was lying 
at the wharf— *Crambus flexuosellus and *Elhamma ( Porina ) cervi- 
nata } Walk. 
Gisborne (North Island), lat. 38° 35' S. 
January 29th, 1910. 
The ship reached Gisborne early, and I took a short stroll, from 
8.0 a.m. to 9.30 a.m., along the shore at the foot of the bluff to the 
north of the town. 
