Art. XVII.—Occurrence of a Species of Ophideres, Boisd., new to New Zealand.

By R. W. Fereday, M.E.S.L.

[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 30th November, 1882.]

On the 13th March last a boy brought me a moth found fluttering in the grass in the yard at the back of my office in Colombo Street, Christchurch. It was alive and vigorous when handed to me, but, unfortunately in a very dilapidated condition, the forewings almost entirely denuded of scales, and the exterior margin of both wings frayed and jagged.

The moth precisely resembles—so far as the dilapidated state of the forewings admits of comparison—the Ophideres archon of Felder figured in Reise der Novara, Lep. 4, pl. cxiii., fig. 3.

In all probability it has been introduced in some way, and is not an indigenous species. Felder's specimen appears to have been taken in Siam.

The following is a description of the insect:—

Female.—General colour of body and appendages ochraceous and pale ferruginous grey; eyes large and prominent; palpi recurved, and ascending above the head the length of the third joint, third joint half the length of the second, clavate, resembling a drumstick, the nob black tipped with pale ochraceous, second joint densely clothed, the underside velutinous; proboscis robust, of moderate length; antennæ simple, rather more than