This very striking species has been taken in the South Island at Castle Hill.
The expansion of the wings of the male is 1¼ inches, of the female 1 inch. _The fore-wings of the male are dull yellowish-brown; in the middle of the wing there is an almost straight long white streak from the base to about three-fourths; there is another straight white streak parallel to the termen and almost touching the apex. The hind-wings are bright ochreous speckled with brown near the base._ The female has the wings rather narrower than the male, and the ground colour is paler.
The perfect insect appears in January. Mr. Fereday's specimens, which formed the basis for the above figure and description, were captured on a bare mountain side at an elevation of about 4,000 feet. Mr. Hawthorne has directed my attention to the remarkable similarity existing between the markings on the fore-wings of this species and those on _Xanthorhoe stinaria_.
(_Pasithea orphnæa_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xvi. 85. _Notoreas orphnæa_, ib. xviii. 184.)
This species was discovered by Mr. Meyrick in the South Island at Lake Wakatipu.
The expansion of the wings of the female is from 28 to 30 mm. (about 1¼ inches). "Fore-wings moderate, termen rounded; dark fuscous, mixed with yellowish and whitish, which tend to form alternate fasciæ; a discal dot and numerous curved irregularly dentate blackish lines, varying in strength and intensity; cilia barred with blackish and whitish. Hind-wings moderate, termen rounded; dark fuscous; a blackish discal dot; a cloudy whitish irroration forming a double curved fascia beyond middle, and a dentate subterminal line; cilia as in fore-wings.
"Imitative in colour of the dark lichen-grown rocks.
{ 72}"I took three specimens almost on the summit of Ben Lomond, Lake Wakatipu, at 5,600 feet, in January."--(Meyrick.)
(_Notoreas isoleuca_, Meyr., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1897, 386.)
This little species has been taken in the South Island on the Craigieburn Range, near Castle Hill.
The expansion of the wings is about ¾ inch. _All the wings are very dark blackish-brown; the fore-wings have five slender wavy white transverse lines. The hind-wings have three white transverse lines_, the first near the base, the second near the middle, and the third, which is very slender and considerably broken, near the termen. _The cilia of all the wings are white, barred with blackish-brown._