TIKITAPU BUSH 
455 
Another day we drove by motor-car over the soft pumice roads 
to Wairoa by way of Okareka Lake and through the Tikitapu Bush. 
The latter would appear to have somewhat recovered from the dire 
effects of the eruption, and the chirruping of cicadas filled the air. 
Whether the fine green Melamjpsalta muta, Fabr., was the musician, 
as seems likely, I know not, but if it was, what in the world induced 
Fabricius to call it mute ? I only succeeded in catching three, 
whereof one settled on the motor, another on my face. My wife 
found a Stick-insect on her dress. The chauffeur picked up on the 
road the large brown Cicada, Melamjosalta cingulata, Fabr., which 
appeared to have recently died. The common Hew Zealand Tiger- 
beetle, *Cicindela tuberculata, again put in an appearance. 
Had it been Hatal the grassy borders of the road would have 
been gay with butterflies, but as it was Hew Zealand I had to be 
content with a few specimens of a Chrysojphanus , that I had not 
before met with— *feredayi , Bates. 1 Here and there Zizera labradus 
turned up, but not in any numbers, and the only other butterfly seen 
that day was *Pyrameis goner ilia, which occurred near Lake Okareka. 
Close by, on a bit of swampy ground covered with interesting vegeta¬ 
tion, I captured two of the pretty little grey Geometer, Adeixis inosten- 
tata, Walk., which Mr. Prout says occurs also in Australia; no doubt 
I could have got more had not time pressed. In the same swamp 
sundry Dragon-flies and the Asilid, *Neoitamus varius, were found. 
In the bush sweeping the flowers of the Veronica salicifolia — 
on which most of the *C. feredayi were taken—yielded the small 
Longicorn, Naomorjpha lineata , Fabr., the little Bee, Paracolletes 
vestitus, and the spiky-backed Weevil, * Scolojpterus tetracanthus, 
White [see Plate VI., Figs. 6, 7], insects that must be handled 
carefully; the Bugs, Tholosanus jproximus, Dali., and Cermatulus 
nasalis, Westw., both extending to Australia and Tasmania. 
The sole Geometer met with in Tikitapu was the now familiar 
*Coremia cineraria. A crowd of Bugs, Neuroctenus sp., were found 
under the bark of logs, their flattened shape well suited to the narrow 
accommodation. 
Mrs. Longstaff found quite a number of Land Shells in Tikitapu 
Bush, all small species, some minute and insignificant looking— 
as indeed are most of the Land Molluscs of Hew Zealand. They 
were chiefly found under the bark of logs, or on the shaggy trunks 
of fallen Tree-ferns. Several Delos jeffreysiana , Pfeiff., Endodonta 
1 Mr. Hudson calls this enysii , Butl.; I have, however, examined the types in the 
British Museum, the two are unquestionably conspecific, and Bates’ name has 
priority. 
