This abundant species is usually mistaken for a butterfly by the uninitiated owing to its diurnal habits and conspicuous colouring. Its larva feeds on various plants, the most usual being a light green kind of ivy with yellow flowers, but its original food no doubt consisted of the "New Zealand groundsel" (_Senecio bellidioides_), on which it may now be occasionally taken in wild situations. Its general colour is black, with interrupted dorsal and lateral lines, the ventral surface and connecting membrane between the segments being slate-coloured. In younger larvæ there are also several slate-coloured lines extending the whole length of the insect, and thus dividing the black into squares. Round the middle of each segment, at its greatest circumference, a variable number of brilliant blue warts are situated, and out of these dense tufts of long black hair take their rise. There are, however, no warts along the ventral surface. This description applies very well as a rule, but the larva is subject to many slight variations. It remains in this state for nearly three months, or more, according to the season, and is very common, numbers being found on the different plants which constitute its food. The pupa (Fig. 3b) is of a shining black colour, with many longitudinal rows of small yellow blotches on the abdominal segments; there is also a stripe of the same colour at the tip of the wing-case. It is enclosed in a slight cocoon, formed of a mixture of silk and hair, and is attached near the ground to any firm object. The moth emerges in the course of a month or six weeks. It is very common, being found profusely in the neighbourhood of its food-plants, and appears in the greatest numbers during the early morning hours in the middle of summer. {74}For an account of a Dipterous insect, parasitic in the present species, I refer to page 59. Family PSYCHIDÆ. _Oeceticus omnivorus_ (Plate X., fig. 1 [M], 1a [F], 1b larva, 1c [M] pupa).