Art. XVI.—Notes on the Entomology of Stewart Island. By W. George Howes, F.E.S., F.L.S. [Read before the Otago Institute, 4th November, 1913.] The entomology of Stewart Island has so far been almost entirely neglected. The following notes and records of captures should prove of interest, and may lead to more extensive work in this promising and interesting field. Towards the end of February, 1913, I landed at Stewart Island, intent on working as much ground as possible in the week at my disposal. Unfortunately, weather-conditions were anything but pleasant, and the bush was soaking from a deluge that had been almost unceasing for five weeks. Insect-life had suffered severely; even the ubiquitous sandflies, whose swarming thousands generally extend the warmest of welcomes to the unsuspecting visitor, were reduced to a few dispirited and disheartened individuals. The evening of my arrival I tried the bush, protecting myself with an oilskin; but the heavy drizzle washed the “sugar” from the trees, and

nothing was attracted. For the remaining evenings of my stay I persisted with the “sugaring” of the trees. Whether rain or fine, the mixture proved quite unattractive save to the usual olla podrida of the commoner beetles, chelifers, cockroaches, Arachnidae, &c. The absence of the moths was the more unexplainable as no attractive bush flowers were out. At the township the flowers of Escallonia attracted the common Morrisoma mutans, M. plena, M. stipata, and M. rubescens, Leucania atristriga, L. semivittata, Perseetania ewingii, and Ariathisa comma. Working the bush tracks each evening with net and lamp I was fairly successful, getting the rare Hydriomena arida in fair numbers, and a few Xanthorhoe oraria and X. occulta; also Chloroclystis muscosata and C. lichenodes, and one or two Tatosoma agrionata. Sestra flexata flew from the bracken-fronds, while Xanthorhoe beata was common enough to be rather a nuisance. Xanthorhoe aegrota, X. semisignata, Hydriomena similata, Asaphodes rufescens, and A. rufescens var. falcata, with one or two Selidosema dejectaria, practically complete the list. The fine but common Rhapsa scotosialis was present in large numbers. In the micros I found but little of interest, the best being the delicate plume Pterophonu monospilalis. A small Tortricite somewhat resembling Ctenopseustis obliquana struck me as new, and on reference to Mr. Philpott he informed me that it was undescribed, he having a specimen also. This has since been described as Tortrix tigris. I am indebted to my sister, Miss Edith Howes, for a most interesting find. When hunting for sea-animals on a small rocky islet in Half-moon Bay, she came upon a number of caterpillars. These I found were feeding on a clump of Panax, and I had no hesitation in placing them as the larvae of Declana egregia. So numerous were the caterpillars of this rare moth that I was able to send dozens of them to the Dominion Museum, in Wellington, to be reared. Unfortunately, no moths have emerged. Having kept one or two caterpillars, I had the pleasure of rearing a single very fine specimen of Declana egregia. The number of larvae on the shrub was so great that the green leaves had all been eaten, and the larvae were clinging to the bare stems, gnawing the softer bark and terminal buds. This starvation diet and the long-continued rain explains the non-success in rearing. On several occasions I attempted to arrange trips to reach the higher levels of Stewart Island, but owing to the bad weather and the difficulty of transit and length of time involved had to abandon the idea. Mount Anglem (3,200 ft.) and Mount Rakeahua (2,200 ft.), with their tops above the bush line, should provide a fine field, full of interesting and novel finds, for some more fortunate collector. The following notes on the insects collected by Mr. R. Fisher, of Gore, at Ruggedy, on the north-west corner of the island, form a very interesting addition to our knowledge, and deal with a locality not easily attainable to the average collector. During Easter, 1911, Mr. Fisher was one of a party camped at Ruggedy. Volume 44, Trans. N.Z. Inst., page 76, gives the botanical results of this expedition, the article being by Mr. Poppelwell, of Gore. The accompanying lists show the insect fauna as collected by Mr. Fisher, and great credit is due to him for the number of species taken and the wide range they cover. Mr. Fisher's previous experience in entomological collecting was limited to a single night's “treacling,” with myself, at the bush near

Gore. He had very little apparatus, yet handed to me over a hundred specimens, mostly in good condition, for his few days' stay at Ruggedy. The Noctuae are poorly represented, but of the Geometrae sixteen species were taken, and of these four are distinctly rare, while one (Microdes villosata), so far as I am aware, is only in one other collection in New Zealand—the Buller Collection, in the Dominion Museum. Mr. Fisher, fortunately, took both sexes. The male has a peculiar fold in the centre of the hindwing; this fold, being black on the grey-white wing, makes the moth both curious and noticeable in appearance. Of the Micro-lepidoptera there are fifteen species, Diptera three species, Hymenoptera three, Neuroptera one, Hemiptera one, and Orthoptera one. Mr. Fisher mentioned that the inclusion of several sandflies was accidental, but unavoidable. Collection made by Mr. R. Fisher, of Gore, at Ruggedy, about the 17th April, 1911. Macro-lepidoptera. Morrisonia mutans. — ochthistis. — plena. Rhapsa scotosialis. Microdes villosata. Chloroclystis indicataria. — plinthina. Hydriomena deltoidata. — similata. — arida. — subochraria. Euchoeca rubropunctaria. Asthena schistaria. Asaphodes rufescens. — var. falcata. Xanthorhoe beata. — venipuncta. Notoreas synclinalis. Selidosema suavis. Drepanodes muriferata. Declana junctilinea var. crassitibia. Diptycophora auriscriptella. Crambus flexuosellus. — tuhualis. — ramosellus. Scoparia cyptastis. — ustimacula. — sabulosella. Scoparia (?). Mecyna notata. Ctenopseustis obliquana. — excessana. Carposina gonosemana. Strathmopoda skelloni. Borkhausemia nyctens (?). Borkhausemia (?). Diptera. Apsoma (?). Two unidentified. Hymenoptera. Ichneumon deceptus. Ichneumon (?). Salius nitidiventris (?). Neuroptera. Xanthagrion zealandicum. Hemiptera. Rhopalimorpha similis. Orthoptera. Acanthoderus (?).