AVIUI—THE 
bright yellow-ochreous, duller beneath; the legs are small 
and the prolegs large and stout. 
The pupa state is assumed about the middle of August. 
Although not actually reared there is no doubt that the 
above deseribed larva belongs to Porina dinodes, and that 
the large vegetable caterpillars found in the extreme south 
of New Zealand may also be correctly referred to the same 
species. 
The perfect insect appears from January till March, 
and is attracted by light. It is evidently rare and appar- 
ently only one specimen of the female is known. I am 
much indebted to Mr. Philpott for my specimens and for 
the opportunity of figuring the female in his collection. 
PORINA LEONINA. 
(Porina leonind, Philp., Trans. N.Z. Inst., lvii., 709.) 
A single somewhat damaged specimen of this species 
was captured by Mr. Philpott on the Mount Arthur Table- 
land, at an altitude of about 3,600 feet above the sea-level. 
It differs from the usual forms of Porina dinodes in the 
following respects: There is a marked reduction in the white 
markings in the upper portion of the disc; the white marks 
forming the subterminal series are further apart, and the com- 
ponents straighter, thus leaving a conspicuous oblique subter- 
minal band of brownish-ochreous between them; the general 
colour of both fore- and hind-wings is warmer in tint than is 
usual in P. dinodes. The cilia of all the wings are pale brown, 
strongly barred with black. 
The perfect insect appears in April. 
PORINA MAIRI. 
(Porina nndiri, Buller, Trans. N.Z. Inst. v. 279, pl. xvii.; Meyr., 
Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxii., 207.) 
A single specimen of this fine species was discovered 
by Sir Walter Buller on the Ruahine Ranges, in the Well- 
ington district, during the summer of 1867. 
The expansion of the wings is about 5 inches. ‘ Wings 
large, broad, front-wings produced, ovate-triangular, pale dirty 
testaceous; six black spots terminating veins on outer margin, 
and bounded by a lunated marginal white band; a submarginal 
Series of arrow-headed black spots, and beyond these a series of 
rounded spots, the first four encircled with white, the rest with 
pale brown; two broken, black discal lines filled in with brown; 
a broad irregular band to below centre of wing, beyond cell, and 
formed of three black lines with brown interspaces; a triangu- 
lar white spot below cell and a white patch terminating it and 
traversed by two black crosses; two diverging black bars sur- 
rounded with white in centre of cell and a third surrounded 
with dirty testaceoug near base; a large irregular patch of 
whitish-brown below end of cell, bounded on internal area by 
three unequally formed patches which together almost form the 
sides of a large triangle; two small spots near base; hind-wings 
greyish, becoming browner towards outer margin and crossed 
by eight interrupted black bars.’—(Buller). 
I have copied the above from Sir Walter Buller’s ori- 
ginal paper, and it may be well to point out that his des- 
cription proceeds from the termen to the base, being the 
reverse order to that followed in all other descriptions in 
this work. 

HEPIALIDAE. 361. 
The type specimen of this species was unfortunately 
lost in the wreck of the barque ‘‘ Assaye’’ in the year 1890 
and no further specimen has since been found. It seems 
almost ineredible that such a large and conspicuous spe- 
cies should have escaped the notice of New Zealand natur- 
alists for 60 years, and on this account one is tempted to 
conjecture that the type specimen might have been an 
extraordinary aberration of Hepralus virescens. 
PORINA ENYSII. 
(Porina enysvi, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1877, 381, pl. xlii. 7. 
Porina enysti, Meyr., Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii, 207.) 
(Plate XLI., figs. 46 @ vars.; 7-10 @ vars.; 
Plate III., fig. 27 larva.) 
This large and richly-coloured insect is apparently 
confined to the North Island. Although usually rare, it 
occasionally occurs in considerable numbers within certain 
favoured spots which it frequents. 
The expansion of the wings of the male is slightly over 24 
inches; of the female about 34 inches. The fore-wings of the 
male are dark ochreous-brown, usually more or less marbled 
with rich chocolate brown, which sometimes almost covers the 
entire wing; there is no discal stripe in either sex but variable 
numbers of minute black-edged white dots are placed irregularly 
on all the veins. The hind-wing’ss are rich pinkish-ochreous. The 
cilia of all the wings are whitish barred with brown. The female 
is very variable. Some specimens have the fore-wings uniform 
pale chocolate brown; others rich orange-brown faintly mottled 
with blackish; others again have an extensive mottling of 
white, whilst in some the fore-wings are almost uniform pale 
ochreous-brown or even yellow. The hind-wings are pinkish- 
ochreous varying in depth according to the general colour of 
the fore-wings. A variety occurs in both sexes, having a very 
broad ochreous band on the forewings from the base to the 
lower half of the termen. 
There is a very extensive and beautiful series of speci- 
mens of this species in the Dominion Museum at Welling- 
ton, collected by the late Mr. Augustus Hamilton in a re- 
stricted spot in the Wellington Botanical Gardens. This 
series includes all the varieties mentioned, as well as 
numerous intermediate forms, and has been of the greatest 
assistance in preparing the figures and descriptions given 
in this work. 
The larva, which is subterranean in habit, feeding on 
the roots of plants in the forest, has 14 distinct segments ; 
the head is small, dark brown; the second segment horny, 
yellowish-brown; the third has three large, yellow, horny 
plates; the fourth has three small horny plates and is much 
wrinkled; the rest of. the body is dull yellowish-white, 
shining and much wrinkled between each segment; the 
last segment is yellowish-brown ; there are a few very short 
black bristles; the spiracles are black and very conspicu- 
ous; no warts are present on the larva. 
Although not yet actually reared in captivity, there 
seems to be little doubt that this larva is correctly referred 
to the present species. 
The perfect insect appears towards the end of Deecem- 
ber and in January. It frequents rather open forests, and 
is especially fond of resting on the stems of tree-ferns dur- 

