We have at present but one New Zealand species.
MISELIA PESSOTA, Meyr.
(Miselia pessota, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 29.)
(Plate [V]., fig. 26.)
This little species has occurred at Wellington in the North Island, and at Lake Coleridge and Rakaia in the South Island.
The expansion of the wings is 1 inch. The fore-wings are dull purplish-brown; there is an oblong black mark at the base of the dorsum containing a slender curved white line; the orbicular is rather small, round, margined first with dull white and then with black; the reniform is large, oblong, dull white, margined with pale ochreous towards the base of the wing; there is a conspicuous oblong black mark between the orbicular and reniform stigmata. The hind-wings are dull grey, with the cilia paler.
The perfect insect appears in January. One specimen was taken at sugar in the Wellington Botanical Gardens, and two specimens are recorded from Canterbury. It is evidently a scarce species.
Genus 2.—ORTHOSIA, Ochs.
"Head rough-scaled; eyes naked, ciliated. Antennæ in male ciliated. Thorax with or without anterior crest. Abdomen not crested.
"A considerable genus of nearly universal distribution, though mainly found in temperate regions of both hemispheres. The imagos are almost all autumnal, and their yellow and ferruginous colouring is doubtless adapted to the autumn tints of falling leaves."—(Meyrick.)