The eggs are very flat, oval, and light green in colour, becoming brown at one end about five days before hatching.
The young larva is pale green with a dull yellowish head. It has no markings until after the first moult when a reddish dorsal line appears. As age advances the larva becomes darker in colour and is ornamented with a series of diagonal yellow stripes. The spiracles and antennæ are pink and very conspicuous. The legs and prolegs are very small, and the latter are bright red in colour; a fleshy process which projects from the last segment of the larva is similarly coloured. The whole insect is also speckled with yellow. When full-grown this caterpillar is very robust and measures about ten lines in length. The pupa is enclosed in a light cocoon formed of three or four leaves fastened together with silk. It is greenish brown in colour.
The perfect insect first appears in December. It may be observed during the whole of the autumn and occasionally in the winter. As the larvæ grow very slowly I am inclined to think that the females hibernate and lay their eggs early in the spring (Fig. 4).
Family Geometridæ.
Sestra humeraria (Plate [XI]., fig. 5, 5a larva).
This abundant species occurs in large numbers round Wellington, amongst brushwood, whence it may be often dislodged during the daytime, but is most readily procurable in the evening. The larva (Fig. 5a), feeds on Pteris incisa, a pale green fern, growing in many open spots in the forest to a height of three or four feet. Its general colour is dull brownish yellow, slightly darker on the back, and ornamented with a number of wavy yellow lines on each side. The ventral surface and legs are green and the head is dark brown; the whole insect being covered with numerous black dots and bristles. When disturbed these larvæ immediately drop to the ground, and coiling themselves up like small snakes, become very inconspicuous.
The pupa is buried in the earth about two inches below the surface, the insect remaining in this state during the winter months. The moths generally emerge about October. So far as my experience goes they are not subject to any notable variations. The specimen drawn at Fig. 6 is regarded as a variety of this species by Mr. Meyrick, but I myself believe it to be quite distinct, as among over a dozen humeraria larvæ reared in captivity, none of the imagines had the slightest resemblance to Fig. 6, although the caterpillars were all taken within a few yards of the place where such moths occurred.
Family Geometridæ.
Selidosema dejectaria (Plate [XI]., fig. 8 ♂, 8a ♀, 8b larva).
An abundant and conspicuous species, occurring throughout the summer, often noticed at rest on fences and trees during the day and always taken in great numbers on various blossoms in the evening.