![Thumbnail: [Volume 44, 1911 page 115]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_44/thumbnails/rsnz_44_00_0147_0115_ac_02.gif)
Art. VIII.—Descriptions of Three New Species of Lepidoptera.
[Read before the Otago Institute, 3rd October, 1911.]
Hydriomenidae.
Chloroclystis lunata n. sp.
♂. 18–19 mm. Head, palpi, thorax, and abdomen dark greenish-fuscous. Palpi 1½. Antennae biciliated with long fascicles, ciliations 3. Forewings triangular, costa almost straight, termen slightly bowed, subsinuate on lower half; dark greenish-fuscous; veins marked more or less with black; lines obscure; some faint thin waved green lines near base; median band ochreous except beneath costa, anterior edge from ½ to ⅗, waved, hardly curved, posterior from ¾ to ⅘, bluntly projecting at middle and concave on lower half; a thin dentate bluish - green subterminal line: cilia ochreous, barred with fuscous. Hindwings fuscous, sprinkled with ochreous; veins with alternate black and white dots; a thin dentate bluish-green subterminal line.
♀ as ♂, but median band almost obsolete, and with prominent irregular crescentic white mark in middle of forewing, the limbs directed posteriorly.
Wallacetown, in December and January. A reddish-brown larva found feeding on Veronica on the 5th February pupated a few days later and emerged as a ♀ moth early in the following December. Unfortunately a fuller description of the larva was not secured.
The species differs from most of its allies in its darker ground-colour, and in the ♀ the white crescentic mark is a good distinctive character.
![Thumbnail: [Volume 44, 1911 page 116]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_44/thumbnails/rsnz_44_00_0148_0116_ac_02.gif)
Crambidae.
Orocrambus subitus n. sp.
♂. 15–16 mm. Head dark brownish-fuscous. Palpi dark brownishfuscous, whitish above. Antennae fuscous. Thorax dark brownish-fuscous with white lateral stripe. Abdomen dark brownish-fuscous. Forewings, costa straight, apex obtuse, termen slightly oblique, golden brown sprinkled with white scales, densely irrorated with white in disc and along dorsum, white irroration produced as a streak from disc to apex, dorsum narrowly black from base to ⅓ a thick black central streak from base to ½, apex obtuse, margined beneath with golden brown; a short black streak above apex of basal streak, anteriorly tapered; a few black scales before tornus indicating a black subterminal line: cilia dark golden brown with obscure darker line. Hindwings dark brownish-fuscous; cilia brown, paler round tornus.
♀. Forewings with white irroration extending to costa; black streaks as in ♀, but margined with orange: cilia grey mixed with white. Hindwings, grey, paler round termen; cilia grey.
Hump Ridge (Okaka); fairly common at 3,500 ft. in December.
Nearest to O. thimiastis, but differing from that species in the colour of the streaks in disc, which are white or yellow in thimiastis, black in subitus.
Pyraustidae.
Scoparia clavata n. sp.
♂. 26 mm. Head and thorax white, with a black lateral stripe from eye to near middle of thorax. Palpi moderate, white above, sides and beneath dark-brownish. Antennae and abdomen grey. Legs grey, anterior pair suffused with fuscous. Forewings moderate, posteriorly dilated, costa almost straight, apex rounded, termen subsinuate, oblique; white, irrorated with brownish-ochreous, costa narrowly brownish; a thick black median streak from base of costa to almost ½, slightly constricted near termination, apex rounded; a thick black streak in disc above middle, irregularly sinuate, beginning before ⅓ and ending at about ⅗ in irregular dilatation; a subterminal black striga, inwardly oblique and dilated beneath costa and above dorsum; all streaks margined with brownish-ochreous; a terminal cha [ unclear: ] in of linear black dots: cilia whitish with two grey lines. Hindwings shining white, ochreous round termen; cilia white, ochreous near apex.
Hump Ridge; in forest, at 3,000 ft., in December; one specimen.
Easily distinguished from S. rotuella, its nearest ally, by the subterminal black strigae; it is also broader-winged than that species.