There are three families of the _Caradrinina_ represented in New Zealand, viz.:-- 1. ARCTIADÆ. 2. CARADRINIDÆ. 3. PLUSIADÆ. Family 1.--ARCTIADÆ. The _Arctiadæ_ may be characterised as follows:-- "Eyes smooth. Tongue developed. Posterior tibiæ with all spurs present. Hind-wings with veins 6 and 7 connate or stalked (rarely approximated or coincident), 8 anastomosing with cell nearly or quite from base to middle or beyond."--(Meyrick.) (See Plate II., figs. 1, 2, and 4, 5.) This interesting family, although generally distributed throughout the world, is very poorly represented in New Zealand. Unlike most of the _Caradrinina_, many of the included species are day fliers and gaily coloured. One of these, _Nyctemera annulata_, is probably one of the most familiar of New Zealand insects, whilst the four remaining representatives of the family are but seldom seen. To British entomologists the name of {2}"tiger moths" will probably at once recall several conspicuous and beautiful members of this family. Three genera of the _Arctiadæ_ are represented in New Zealand, viz.:-- 1. NYCTEMERA. 2. UTETHEISA. 3. METACRIAS. Genus 1.--NYCTEMERA, Hb. "Tongue well developed. Antennæ in [M] bipectinated throughout. Palpi moderately long, porrected or rather ascending, with appressed scales; terminal joint moderate, cylindrical. Forewings with vein 6 out of 9 or separate, 7 and 8 out of 9, 10 connected with 9 by a bar. Hind-wings with veins 6 and 7 stalked or separate, 8 anastomosing shortly with margin of cell near base." (Plate II., fig. 3 head, 4 neuration of fore-wing, 5 ditto of hind-wing.) "The single New Zealand species is endemic, but nearly allied to an Australian form."--(Meyrick.) NYCTEMERA ANNULATA, Boisd. (_Leptosoma annulata_, Boisd., Voy. Astr. v. 197, pl. v. 9; Dbld., Dieff, N. Z. ii. 284. _Nyctemera doubledayi_, Walk., Bomb. 392. _Nyctemera annulata_, Meyr., Proc. Linn. Soc., N.S.W., 1886, 700; ditto, Trans. N. Z. Inst. xxii. 218.) (Plate IV., fig. 1 [M], 2 [F]; Plate III., fig. 9, larva.) This species is perhaps one of the best known of the New Zealand Lepidoptera, occurring in great profusion in all parts of both North and South Islands. It is also common at Stewart Island, in the neighbourhood of cultivation. The expansion of the wings is about 1¾ inches. _All the wings are deep sooty black. The forewings have an irregular cream-coloured band running from beyond the middle of the costa towards the tornus._ This band is interrupted in the middle, and crossed by several black veins, which sometimes almost break it up into a chain of spots. The hind-wings have a single large cream-coloured spot near the middle. The body is black, with several orange markings on the thorax, and a series of broad orange rings on the abdomen. This species varies a good deal in the extent of the cream-coloured markings.