Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 15.djvu/65

before hindmargin: cilia pale ochreous, with a darker line near base, tips at apex blackish. Hindwings whitish, at apex ochreous-tinged, coarsely spotted with grey; cilia whitish.

Variable in intensity of colouring, the female apparently darker than the male; easily known from the next species by its larger size and much lighter ground-colour.

Larva moderate, cylindrical, slightly tapering at each end; pale whitish-grey-greenish, becoming darker smoky-grey on back; head and plate of second segment, when young, black, when full-grown greenish-ochreous. Feeds between joined leaves of oak (Quercus robur), gnawing numerous holes, and forming a loose silken gallery for shelter. Pupa in a thin silken cocoon in same position. I found these larvæ plentiful in April, and bred a female indoors in June. The food-plant being imported, the larva is probaby polyphagous.

Common at Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington, probably very generally distributed; in January, and again in April and May.

Minor, alis ant. brunneis, plumbeo-strigulatis, partim nigro-suffusis, striga obscura albida posteriori in apicem percurrente; post griseis.

Male, 14 mm.—Head, palpi, and thorax reddish-fuscous mixed with dark fuscous. Antennæ grey, annulated with blackish. Abdomen grey. Legs grey-whitish, anterior and middle tibiæ and tarsi and apical joints of posterior tarsi suffused with dark fuscous, except at apex of joints. Forewings moderate, posteriorly dilated, costa moderately arched, hindmargin sinuate, oblique; rather dark reddish-ochreous-fuscous, mixed with dark fuscous, and coarsely strigulated throughout with leaden-grey; costa and inner margin shortly strigulated with blackish; an indistinct blackish suffusion in disc near base, and another in disc towards apex; an indistinct slender streak of grey-whitish scales from near inner margin before anal angle to apex, where it is suffusedly dilated: cilia reddish-fuscous mixed with dark fuscous. Hindwings grey; cilia whitish-grey, with two indistinct darker lines.

Differing widely from the preceding in the fuscous ground-colour, leaden strigulations, grey hindwings, and small size.

One specimen taken amongst bush near Christchurch in March.

Thorax smooth. Antennæ in male ciliated. Palpi moderate or rather long, porrected, second joint triangularly scaled. Forewings in male with strong costal fold. Hindwings broader than forewings. Forewings with 12 veins, 7 and 8 stalked, 7 to hindmargin. Hindwings with 8 veins, 3 and 4 separate at origin, 5 approximated to 4 at base, 6 and 7 stalked.