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and general obviousness was Persedania ewingi, which I at once 
christened the Mantle-moth. Amongst a crowd of them I found a 
single * P. steropastis, Meyrk. Only a little less common than the 
Mantle-moth was * Morrisonia mutans. Several other species came 
in smaller numbers, to wit: * M. prionistis, Meyrk.; * M. lignana, 
Walk.; * M. homoscia , Meyrk.; * Bityla defigurata , and the pretty 
little Cosmodes elegans. More excitement was, however, caused by 
the appearance of a larger moth in the kitchen, where, to the surprise 
of domestics, I secured the handsome Australian Dasypodia 
selenophora, Guen., in fine condition; it has a large steely-blue 
ocellus on the fore-wings which gives it quite a tropical look; as it is 
not considered common in New Zealand, I was fortunate in getting 
a specimen. Our familiar friend Agrotis ypsilon , Rott. (suffusa 
Hiibn.), deserves mention; it is not very common in the Dominion, 
but I saw several. Judging from the long series in the National 
Collection I should say that while the form with a dark central band 
seems to be equally common in New Zealand and North America, 
the form with a dark costa is more prevalent at the Antipodes than 
in other parts of the world. Sir George Hampson notes that the 
hind margin of the hind-wing is darker in New Zealand examples. 1 
So much for the Noctuae. The most conspicuous among 
members of other families was *Hemerophila dejedaria ; then there 
was the little sulphur-coloured *Asthena undosaia, Walk.; * Cidaria 
similata, Walk.; and the common Emmiltis rubraria. A solitary 
Sceliodes cordalis was the sole Pyrale seen. 
I suppose the Tineid, * Borkhausenia griseata, Butl., should have 
precedence over the Swift, *Elhamma sign at a, which proved to be 
common as soon as I had found out its ways; its plan seemed to 
be to slink in quietly and almost at once settle down below a lamp, 
on or near the skirting-board. 
In the garden the white flowers of the Lace-bark, called by the 
Maoris “Hoihere” (*Hoheriapopulnea, A. Gunn.), were very attractive 
to such insects as were to be had. On them I netted * Chrysophanus 
sallustius and *feredayi, also an occasional *Pyrameis gonerilla. 
The only Aculeate was Apis mellifica , var. ligustica, but there were 
several somewhat striking Flies:—the shining-blue * Helophilus 
latifrons, Schiner ( hochstetteri , Nowicki) ; Pycnosoma sp.; Odonto- 
myia chloris, conspicuous by its partly green abdomen; Pollenia 
stygia , and the large *Hystricia signata, Walk. 
In dead wood I found a colony of *Monomorium antardicum , 
White, var. Sweeping produced abundance of * Sarcophaga im a tiens. 
* “ Jjepidoptera, Phalaenae,” vol. iv. p. 369. 
