The expansion of the wings is 1⅜ inches. The fore-wings are bluish-grey, speckled and dappled with blackish-brown; there is a pale transverse line near the base, partially edged with black; the orbicular is round, containing a blackish dot in the middle; the reniform is elongate-oval, including a dark spot in its lower portion; the space surrounding the stigmata is clouded with dark blackish-brown; there is a terminal series of small blackish crescentic marks, and the cilia are dark grey. The hind-wings are brownish-grey; the cilia are also grey tipped with white.
This species is evidently closely allied to M. phricias, but may at present be distinguished by its darker and more bluish colouring.
The perfect insect appears in January and March. I have taken it at light on the Tableland of Mount Arthur, at 3,600 feet above the sea-level.
Genus 8.—ERANA, Walk.
"Eyes hairy. Antennæ in male filiform, simple, with scattered single cilia. Thorax with anterior and posterior crests. Abdomen with strong dorsal crests towards base. Fore-wings in male beneath with a very long dense tuft of scent-giving hairs from base; transverse vein absent, 7 and 8 out of 9, 10 free. Hind-wings with transverse vein absent, costa in male broadly dilated."—(Meyrick.) (Plate [II]., fig. 9 fore-wing, 10 hind-wing.)[[16]]
We have one species representing this interesting genus.
ERANA GRAMINOSA, Walk.
(Erana graminosa, Walk., Noct. 605. E. vigens, ib., Suppl. 743. Erana graminosa, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xix. 28.)
(Plate [V]., fig. 24 ♂, 25 ♀; Plate [III]., fig. 8, larva.)
This beautiful species appears to be fairly common in many forests in the North Island. It has occurred at Wanganui, Masterton, Palmerston, and Wellington. In the South Island it has been taken by Mr. Philpott, at West Plains, near Invercargill.