OROPHORA UNICOLOR, Butl.
(Psyche unicolor, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1877, 381. Orophora toumatou, Fereday, Trans. N. Z. Inst. x. 262, pl. ix. Orophora unicolor, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xxii. 212.)
(Plate [XIII]., fig. 7 ♂.)
This odd-looking little insect has been found by Mr. Fereday, at Rakaia.
The expansion of the wings is hardly 1 inch. All the wings are rather broad, rounded, and very sparsely covered with dusky brown hair-like scales; the body is very hairy, and the antennæ are slightly bi-pectinated. The female is apterous.
The life-history is thus described by Mr. Fereday: "I have never seen the larva. Its case measures in length about 16 lines (1⅜ inches); the exterior is covered with pieces of stems of grass from a line to 5 lines in length, laid longitudinally and in the manner of thatch; the interior is thinly lined with fine silk. The cases are found fixed to the twigs of the Wild Irishman (Discaria toumatou), but it may be inferred from the covering of the case, that it probably does not feed on the shrub but upon the tussock grass, generally growing where the shrub is found. It is some years since I found the cases on Discaria toumatou, growing in the river-beds of the Rakaia and Waimakariri, on the Canterbury Plains, and I did not find any case in its earlier stage before the larva had fed up and changed into the pupa state."[[67]]
All Mr. Fereday's specimens were bred from the cases, and to the best of my belief no one has ever observed the insect on the wing. It is evidently a very scarce species, and is probably restricted to a few river-beds in the South Island.
VII.—THE TORTRICINA.
Not dealt with in this volume.