



292 

be common anywhere. It is very rare in the extreme 
south. 
The expansion of the wings is about 1 inch. The fore-wings 
are broad with the costa very strongly arched, the termen 
straight and the tornus rounded; white, in living specimens 
more or less tinged with very pale green; all the veins are 
marked at regular intervals with minute grey dots and there is 
a more conspicuous grey dot in the dise beyond the middle. 
The hind-wings are white. 
The egg is very thin wafer-like oval with a slight pro- 
jection; the edge is semitransparent, the middle very pale 
yellowish-green and the whole surface covered with slight 
irregular hexagonal depressions. The young larva is about 
one thirty-second of an inch long; the head and second 
segment are large horny black and shining; the rest of the 
body brownish-ochreous and the whole larva covered with 
very long hairs. The foodplants are ramarama (Myrtus 
bullata, Drimys colorata, and tarata (Pittosporum euge- 
noides). 
The pupa, according to Messrs. Hanify and Myers, is 
suspended by the tail fully exposed, attached to the mid- 
rib of a leaf, almost at right angles from the surface of 
the leaf, after the manner of the pupa of a butterfly or 
plume moth. 
The perfect insect appears in December, January and 
February, and frequents forest. It is sluggish in its hab- 
its and slow to take wing, and this may lead to its being 
often overlooked. Although widely distributed, it is never 
abundant and, as a rule, only single specimens are met 
with. This lovely insect probably imitates the delicate 
white petals of the flowers of the ramarama, which blooms 
during the early part of February. 
yenus 23.—PROTEODES, Meyr. 
Basal joint of antennae without pecten. Second joint of 
labial palpi with appressed scales, somewhat rough beneath. 
Fore-wings with 7 to apex. Hind-wings ovate, 5 bent and ap- 
proximated to 4 at base. (Plate G., fig. 29, head of Proteoder 
carnifex.) - 
An endemic genus represented by four species. 
PROTEODES CARNIFEX. 
(Cryptolechia carnifex, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, 406; 
Proteodes carnifer, Meyr., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1882, 
493; Trans. N.Z. Inst., xvi. 7; Cryptolechia rufosparsa, 
Butl., lc. 406.) 
(Plate XXXII., figs. 23, 24, 25 varieties.) 
This very pretty and variable species has occurred at 
tollan’s Valley, near Wellington, in the North Island, and 
on the Tableland of Mount Arthur, at Christchurch, Mount 
Hutt, Castle Hill, Arthur’s Pass and Lake Wakatipu, in 
the South Island. 
The expansion of the wings is about ~ inch. The forewings 
are broad with the costa strongly arched and the termen almost 
straight, pale brownish-ochreous; the anterior legs and the ex- 
treme costal edge are usually bright red, the costal edging being 
broken at 4 and 4; there is often a dusky grey shading along 
the costa, across the middle of the cell and on the termen the 
veins are usually dotted with blackish-grey. The hind-wings are 
white shaded with grey at the apex. 
XVI[—THE 
TINEIDAEL. 
There is much variation in the colour of the fore-wings 
which are sometimes clouded with pale greyish-brown, 
sometimes uniform bright reddish-brown, or orange-brown, 
without markings, and sometimes clear yellow. The size 
and outline are, however, very constant and characteristic 
so that little difficulty is usually experienced in recognising 
the insect. 
According to Mr. Meyrick the larva has sixteen legs, 
is rather stout, cylindrical, tapering behind; pale whitish- 
green or yellowish-green, generally more greyish-green on 
the sides; the dorsal line is broad, irregular, dark brownish- 
purple, sap-green or yellowish-green mixed with reddish- 
ochreous and, bisected by a slender, interrupted, whitish 
line; the lateral line is sap-green or obsolete; the sub-spira- 
eular line is slender, interrupted, dark brownish purple or 
faintly pinkish; the spots are small, shining, dark brown; 
the head is ochreous-brown or yellowish-green; the second 
segment is greener than the body, or blackish marbled with 
pale ochreous, the larva generally being remarkably vari- 
able. It feeds on the mountain beech (Nothofagus Solan- 
dri) in January, making a slight web amongst the leaves 
from which it is very readily dislodged. 
The pupa, which is short, stout, and pale green, irre- 
eularly shaded with brown, is enclosed in a slight cocoon 
amongst the dead beech leaves. : 
The perfect insect appears from January till April. 
It frequents beech forests, usually at elevations of from 
1,000 to 3,500 feet above the sea-level, where it is often 
extremely abundant. In its shape, size and colouring it 
resembles the faded or fallen leaves of the beech, the yel- 
low and reddish-brown varieties, which are mostly females, 
approximating very closely in this respect. This interest- 
ing protective resemblance, which is shared by most of the 
beech-feeding insects, was first observed by J. D. Enys over 
40 years ago. 
PROTEODES MELOGRAPHA. 
(Proteodes melographa, Meyr., Trans. N.Z. Inst., lvii., 700.) 
(Plate LII., fig. 20 @.) 
This very distinct species was discovered by Selwyn 
Woodward, on Mount Arthur, at an elevation of about 
4,000 feet above the sea-level. 
The expansion of the wings is slightly over # inch. The 
fore-wings are broadly oblong, with the costa strongly arched 
at the base; pale cream colour with nwmerous blackish-grey 
strigulae; basal area irregularly sprinkled with blackish and 
dull reddish scales; a wavy transverse black line from } of 
costa to about 4 of dorsum; a conspicuous tuft of reddish scales 
in disc beyond this; a cloudy patch of reddish and blackish 
scales on costa at 4; a large very diffused patch of blackish-grey 
scales on costa before apex and a similar smaller patch on tor- 
nus; a chain of black dots along sub-costal vein; several indis- 
tinct transverse series of faint reddish-ochreous spots on outer 
third of wing; a terminal series of blackish dots; cilia grey in- 
distinctly barred with darker. The hind-wings and cilia are very 
pale creamy-grey with dark discal dot and terminal marks. 
The perfect insect appears in January. It may be 
looked for on mountains near the upper limit of forest 
growth, 

























































