"Face with short cone of scales. Palpi rough-scaled. Antennæ in male shortly ciliated. Abdomen crested. Fore-wings with areole simple, vein 11 running into or anastomosing with 12. Hind-wings with vein 8 anastomosing with cell from near base to beyond middle." (Plate II., figs. 19 and 20.)
"This genus is especially characteristic of New Zealand, and is also found in South Asia, a few stragglers occurring in Europe and elsewhere."--(Meyrick.)
We have twelve species, several of which are very beautiful.
(_Pasiphila plinthina_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xx. 49.)
This pretty species has occurred at Wellington.
The expansion of the wings is about ½ inch. All the wings are traversed by numerous obscure, wavy, reddish-yellow lines; the fore-wings have a dark shading near the base, _a very large white blotch in the middle_, and a dark chocolate-brown patch near the apex. _The hind-wings have a large shaded white patch in the middle_, a blackish dot near the base, and a series of brownish crescentic marks on the termen; the cilia of all the wings are pale brown barred with brownish-black. The termen of the fore-wings is very oblique, of the hind-wings rather irregular.
Many specimens of this insect are strongly tinged with green, and the shape and size of the white patches on the fore- and hind-wings are subject to slight variations.
The perfect insect appears in November and December. It frequents brushwood, where it may be occasionally taken at rest on tree-trunks but more often dislodged from the foliage. It is not a very common species.
(_Eupithecia bilineolata_, Walk. 1246. _E. muscosata_, ib. 1246. _Scotosia humerata_, ib. 1362. _Eupithecia semialbata_, ib. 1708. _E. cidariaria_, Gn., Ent. Mo. Mag. v. 62. _Cidiaria aquosata_, Feld., pl. cxxxi. 33. _Helastia charybdis_, Butl., Cist. Ent. ii. 503. _H. calida_, ib. 504. _Pasiphila muscosata_, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. 50. _P. bilineolata_, ib.)
(Plate VI., fig. 9 type, fig. 10 variety.)
This beautiful little species is common, and generally distributed throughout the country.
{ 42}The expansion of the wings is ¾ inch. _The fore-wings are bright green with numerous wavy darker lines._ There is a jagged transverse black line near the base, two at about one-fourth, enclosing a rather paler space; beyond this there are several rather irregular, fine black marks, and an obscure white patch below the apex; the cilia are dull green. The hind-wings are grey slightly tinged with reddish; the dorsum and termen are shaded with green, and there is a number of curved black lines on the dorsum; the cilia are dull greenish-grey. The termen of the fore-wings is slightly bowed, and all the wings are finely scalloped and sharply outlined in black.