This pretty little moth was reared from a larva found feeding amongst moss during the winter of 1885, but unfortunately I neglected to make a drawing until it was too late. Doubtless many of the other Pyrales we meet with in the New Zealand forest have similar habits, their larvæ probably feeding on different kinds of mosses. These can always be examined during the winter months, when the entomologist is usually in want of work, and thus much information may be obtained regarding this interesting but little-known family.
Family Pyralidæ.
Scoparia sabulosella (Plate [XIII]., fig. 4, 4a larva).
This is that extremely abundant, though dull-coloured little insect, that rises in such multitudes from every field before one's footsteps during the early summer.
Its larva (Fig. 4a) feeds on various mosses, forming numerous silken galleries amongst the roots in which it resides. These caterpillars are very active, and consequently rather difficult to obtain, as they move either backwards or forwards in their galleries with equal rapidity.
They feed during the whole of the autumn and winter, changing into pupæ about September, from which the moths emerge in a month or six weeks' time.
The habits of the numerous other species belonging to this genus and the closely allied genus Xeroscopa (Meyr) probably do not materially differ from those of the species here described.
Family Pyralidæ.
Crambus flexuosellus (Plate [XII]., fig. 5).
An extremely abundant insect, occurring in swarms over meadows during the summer, where it may be captured in the daytime or taken by hundreds at the attracting lamp in the evening. Its larva is at present unknown, but probably feeds on the roots of grasses.