New Zealand Moths and Butterflies (Macro-Lepidoptera)Hudson, G. V. (George Vernon)
Science
New Zealand Moths and Butterflies (Macro-Lepidoptera)
Hudson, G. V. (George Vernon)
Lepidoptera -- New Zealand
In a few male specimens I have observed four large black spots on the
fore-wings, two near the base, and two near the termen. All these spots are
sometimes joined together by a very broad black band, which extends along
the whole of the central portion of the fore-wings. I have also a male
specimen in which the fore-wings are entirely marbled with dark grey. In
the female two or three moderately large spots are occasionally present on
the fore-wings, near the termen. All these varieties appear to be much
scarcer than the typical form.
The larva, which feeds on manuka (_Leptospermum_), has ten legs. It is
rather slender, dark brown, mottled with grey and dull red. There are two
large tubercles on the sides of the seventh and eighth segments. It is a
sluggish caterpillar and is generally seen in a motionless condition,
clasping the stem of its food-plant with its prolegs, and holding the rest
of its body in a perfectly rigid position like a small branch. The pupa is
enclosed in a cocoon of silk and refuse on the surface of the ground.
The perfect insect appears in January, February and March. It is a
forest-dwelling species, and may often be captured in some numbers, at
dusk, on the flowers of the white rata (_M. scandens_). It is very sluggish
and nearly always drops to the ground when disturbed and feigns death.
Genus 9.--DECLANA, Walk.
"Face roughly haired. Antennæ in male bi-pectinated to apex or simple.
Palpi with second joint ascending, rough-haired, terminal joint rather
long, slender, clavate, porrected. Thorax densely hairy above and
beneath, with more or less developed median crest. Femora densely hairy.
Fore-wings in male without fovea; vein 6 sometimes out of 9, 10 sometimes
out of 9, connected or anastomosing with 9, 11 sometimes out of 10,
sometimes connected or anastomosing with 10."--(Meyrick.) (Plate II.,
figs. 56 and 57, neuration of _Declana floccosa_, 58 head of ditto.)
We have seven species.
{95}DECLANA ATRONIVEA, Walk.
(_Detunda atronivea_, Walk., Suppl. ii. 619. _Chlenias_ (?) _manxifera_,
Fereday, Trans. N. Z. Inst. xii. (1879), 268, pl. ix. 1. _Detunda
atronivea_, Meyr., ib. xvi. 101.)
(Plate X., fig. 33 [M], 34 [F]; Plate III., fig. 18, larva.)
This very handsome and conspicuous insect appears to be restricted to the
North Island, where it is rather rare. It has occurred at Wellington,
Otaki, and Napier.
The expansion of the wings of the male is 1-5/8 inches, of the female
nearly 2 inches. The fore-wings are _brilliant shining white, with
numerous black markings_; these consist chiefly of three irregular
branching transverse bands, and a series of wedge-shaped spots on the
termen; the larger markings are brownish in the centre. The hind-wings
are dark grey, becoming almost black on the termen, with a fine wavy
transverse black line.
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