connecting them; a similar spot at lower ends of meso- and metanotum, and one at the lower end of every joint (sternites) of abdomen, these latter are reddish; prothorax 3 lines long, plain; mesothorax 8 lines long with a few scattered small green points and two larger ones (small spines) on the mesonotum; metathorax 7 lines long and (with mesothorax) broadest at the lower end.

Legs long, rather slender, triangular, striated; striæ pinkish-brown; 2 small spines at lower ends of tibiæ; tarsi very pubescent, tibiæ slightly so, also the anterior femora between spines; ungues large, divergent, glabrous, piceous: anterior pair, femora much shorter than tibiæ, and deeply excised at upper end for more than 2 lines; 5 coloured distant spines on lower outer margin, the upper outer margin sinuate and uneven, with a tubercle on each side under coxæ; coxæ large, stout, brownish, wrinkled: middle and posterior pairs with 4 small brown spines at lower end of femora. Ovipositor large, rounded and slightly pubescent; anal appendages thin at tips pubescent.

The eggs of this insect are peculiar and worthy of a full notice. They somewhat resemble the seeds of a flowering garden-pea; being slightly sub-4-angled in compressed parallelograms 2 lines long and 1 line broad, of a reddish-grey or light chocolate colour, a transverse section, being linear-elliptic; their ends truncate with margins produced and rough, one end convex and one end umbonate with a little produced central boss or blunt mucro; the shell is crustaceous, slightly hardish, roughish, and much furrowed irregularly with impressed angular markings rather prettily disposed; one of the lateral edges is smooth, produced a little and thickened, having near the narrower end of the egg a large ovate depression with a raised little seam around it, resembling also the hilum of a leguminous seed: nine eggs weigh two grains.

A female, that I kept alive for some time under glass, laid 54 eggs in a fortnight, in the latter half of June; this she did by merely dropping them, without moving or showing any solicitude. She lived for three weeks, feeding on the bark of the young branches of arbor-vitæ (Thuja occidentalis), which she greedily ate, gnawing it off all round very cleanly. The fæces were plentiful and regularly formed in small narrow cylindrical brownish roughish rolls, 1 ½ lines long, somewhat resembling the withered tips of the branchlets of the shrub on which she lived.

Hab. At Pourerere, E. Coast, near Blackhead, County of Waipawa; 1884: Mr. Wm. Scott.

Obs. I. I have subsequently (two months later) received from Mr. Scott another living specimen of this insect, also a female, and precisely agreeing with the former one received from him. This second specimen, however,

was not pregnant (very likely had laid her eggs before capture), she would not eat and only lived a few days. And again, since writing the foregoing, I have received from him a third specimen, this one being a male; it is smaller and slenderer and more smooth, but agreeing in every other particular.

II. As a species it is apparently allied to B. hookeri, but very distinct. In its many and bright colours, the configuration of its head and anterior femora, it approaches species of the allied Australian genus Phasma (Diura).

2. Bacillus filiformis, sp. nov.

Colour fulvous irregularly variegated with brown.

Head dull-grey, sub-triangular, broadest in front, convex at vertex, smooth; eyes very prominent at angles, neck narrow; antennæ setaceous, 1 ½ inch long, very roughly pubescent, brownish-yellow ringed with 23 black knobbed joints (reminding of a miniature stem of Dendrobium lessonii), apical joint longer than each of the three following, and the middle joints longest, with a small whitish protuberance on each horn about the middle.

Body very slender, length 4 inches, breadth 1 line, a little more at joints of abdomen; prothorax very small, 2 lines long, smooth, with a central longitudinal ridge; mesothorax 11 lines long, with several large spines above and below; metathorax 10 lines long, one pair of spines above, four below; spines distant, stout, coarse, black; abdomen knobbed at joints, two spines below first segment, with a small tubercle under each joint on the sides; appendage broadly triangular, tips finely pilose; anal extremities obtuse, thickened.

Legs very slender, striate or sub-angular, pilose; ungues small, pubescent: anterior pair, two small spines at lower end of femora, tibiæ tetragonal, 1 ¼ inch long, much longer than femora: middle pair, with six stout black spines at lower end of femora, and one very small spine on the inner margin at ¼ of the length from coxæ, and a small elevated spine on outer margin of tibiæ at ¼ of the length from the basal joint: posterior pair with two small spines at the lower end of femora.

Hab. Woods, Seventy-mile Bush, Waipawa County; 1883: W.C.

Obs. A peculiar dry-looking, rigid, slender form. Apparently a scarce species; only one perfect specimen seen.

3. Bacillus minimus, sp. nov.

Colour light green. Body smooth, 8 ½ lines long, ½ line broad. Head 1 line long; antennæ 1 line long, pinkish, finely pubescent, composed of 9 joints, the lowest two light green, basal large flattish, the apical one longest linear-oblong obtuse. Thorax (notum) with a central pinkish longitudinal broad stripe, vanishing at sides; prothorax ¾ line long, slightly wrinkled; mesothorax 1 ½ lines, metathorax 1 ¼ lines, long; prosternum a triangular scale with a rounded apex.

Legs finely striate; two minute spines at the lower end of femora; anterior pair of femora with a long ridge on the upper margin; tarsi and tibiæ finely pubescent; lowest joint of tarsus flat, broad. Abdomen 4 lines long; anal appendages finely pubescent. Weight barely 2 grains.

Hab. On trees and shrubs, Norsewood, Waipawa County; 1884: W.C.

Obs. This interesting, slim, delicate, and fairy-like little creature, is by far the smallest species of the genus known to me; it differs in several respects from its congeners, particularly in its antennæ. It moves very slowly. At first I had supposed it to be merely the larval state of one of the larger species, but its fully developed antennæ, etc., forbid such a supposition.

4. Bacillus atro-articulus, sp. nov.

Female: General colour greenish-grey blotched with brown, bearing a slight iridiscent hue. Head ochraceous, oblong, 3 lines long, wider than prothorax, genæ gibbous, vertex depressed, a sub-lunate ridge between the eyes, with two small pits (foveolæ) between ridge and base of antennæ; nine large black spines on the occiput, and a single tubercle just above each eye; antennæ slender, pubescent, 10 lines long, composed of eighteen joints, apical one the longest; palpi pubescent. Prothorax 2 lines long, two black spines at lower edge of pronotum; prosternum smooth: mesothorax 7 ½ lines long, six spines in three pairs on mesosternum, several scattered and one large pair of black ones central on mesonotum, and a regular longitudinal row of five small spines on the pleura extending down to intermediate coxæ: metathorax 8 lines long, two pairs of spines on metasternum and three pairs on metanotum, with a similar row of five small spines on pleura extending to posterior coxæ. Abdomen rather stout, 1 ¾ inches long, mostly smooth, wrinkled longitudinally below; two short blunt spines above on apical end of each segment, decreasing gradually in size downwards; two small tubercles below at apical end of the first segment, the end of the sixth segment has foliaceous sides and one large central spine below, with a thick ridge running from it to the middle of sheath of ovipositor: anal appendages large bearing scattered black hairs. Legs rather short; all having a ridge of double black spines at the apical ends of femora, and two spines at apical ends of tibiæ, and all joints black at their apical ends, but the terminal joints of the tarsi are light glaucous-green; tarsi and ungues are very hairy, the tibiæ and femora slightly so; hairs black:—anterior pair, coxæ with two black spines below; femora 10 lines long with four sharp angles deeply sulcated between, bearing a single row of six large spines on the lower edge, the upper edge sinuous and bearing three minute and distant spines; the upper excised portion 4 lines long with an elevated sharp ridge; tibiæ of equal length, very slender, smooth; the basal joint