III—HABITS AND DISTRIBUTION OF N.Z, LEPIDOPTERA. Li 
Hemisphere, it must be conjectured that their ancient 
representatives travelled to South America by way of the 
great mountain chain of the Rocky Mountains and the 
Andes. In this way alone could they have escaped com- 
petition with the innumerable denizens of the tropics, and 
their tolerance of low temperatures would have enabled 
them to survive the vicissitudes of a mountain climate, 
during the prolonged period which would have been re- 
quired for their dispersal. An examination of a cireum- 
polar map of the Southern Hemisphere shows that the main 
mountain chains of South America, the Antarctic and New 
Zealand, to some extent, traverse the globe in a common 
direction and that these three mountain systems are not so 
remote from each other, as the maps of the world in 
ordinary use, would lead one to suppose. It is therefore 
quite a reasonable theory, that the dispersal of these 
northern forms of life, took place through the intermediary 
of the Antarctic, at a time when its climatic conditions were 
much milder than now. 
Again from the life-histories that follow it will be seen 
that quite an unusual number of the larvae of the New 
Zealand Lepidoptera (especially amongst the Pyralidae and 
Tineidae), are internal feeders; either living within the 
branches of trees, or under bark, and subsisting on wood, 
or subterranean feeding on the roots of grasses, or on moss. 
These habits would enable the larvae to thrive in a cold, 
wet, tempestuous climate, such as no doubt existed in the 
Antarctic lands, when the climatic conditions there were 
much less severe than at the present time. 
Finally, corroborative evidence of this view is afforded 
by the distribution of the species of Lepidoptera within New 
Zealand itself, and in this connection the reader is invited 
to consult the detailed census of species at the end of this 
book. The great preponderance of species in the South 
Island, especially amongst the larger genera, is only intel- 
ligible on the assumption that they entered New Zealand 
from the South, and is absolutely inconsistent with the view 
that the bulk of the Lepidopterous fauna was derived from 
Australia and the Pacific Islands by way of the North 
Island.* 

“The general conclusions set out in this Chapter, regard- 
ing the Geographical Distribution and Affinities of the New 
Zealand Lepidoptera, have been taken from Mr. Meyrick’s 
published works, supplemented by the private correspondence 
I have been privileged to have with him. Whilst thus ack- 
nowledging my indebtedness, I have no desire to commit Mr. 
Meyrick to any responsibility, in connection with the manner 
in which I have expressed his views. 


