Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 15.djvu/89

haired, sometimes tufted beneath. Forewings with strong costal fold in male. Hindwings broader than forewings. Forewings with 12 veins, 7 and 8 separate, 7 to hindmargin. Hindwings with 8 veins (or 7 by coincidence of 3 and 4), 3 and 4 long-stalked or coincident, 5 closely approximated at base to 4, 6 and 7 separate.

A characteristic Australian genus; both the New Zealand species are found in Australia, whence it seems probable they may have been introduced.

Minor, alis ant. griseis, albido-sparsis, vitta longitudinali post medium deflexa, trianguloque marginis postici saturatioribus, nigro ochreoque mixtis; post. saturate griseis.

Male, female.—12½–15 mm. Head and thorax grey mixed with ashywhitish, shoulders ochreous-tinged. Antennæ of male notched at ⅕ from basal joint. Forewings moderate, slightly dilated posteriorly, costa gently arched, hindmargin nearly straight, oblique; light-grey, more or less sprinkled irregularly with whitish, and mixed with darker grey, disc in female sometimes longitudinally whitish; costa strigulated with blackish; in male a tuft of raised scales on submedian fold before middle; a cloudy irregular somewhat sinuate broad dark fuscous longitudinal streak in disc, mixed with ochreous and blackish, extending from near base to beyond middle, thence bent downwards to inner margin before anal angle; an ill-defined triangular dark fuscous blotch on upper half of hindmargin, sometimes ochreous-tinged, its apex extending inwards to disc at ¾, generally containing two or three longitudinal black streaks; in male these markings are lighter, less defined, and more or less obscured by a general grey mottling: cilia grey, mixed with whitish points, irregularly and indistinctly barred with blackish. Hindwings dark grey; cilia grey, with a dark-grey line near base; veins 3 and 4 long-stalked.

Easily known from the following by the broader wings, only partial coincidence of veins 3 and 4, and greater remoteness of the antennal notch from the basal joint; the markings are usually very different, but both species vary so much, and are sometimes so obscurely marked, that the structural points furnish the readiest means of distinction.

Larva active, cylindrical; dull green, more yellowish-tinged on sides and towards extremities, spots paler; head black; second segment, or posterior half only, black. Feeds in September in spun-together shoots, or in a loose tubular web amongst leaves, of Leptospermum scoparium; in Australia on other Myrtaceœ.