Genus 3.—CHLOROCLYSTIS, Hb.
"Face with short cone of scales. Palpi rough-scaled. Antennæ in male shortly ciliated. Abdomen crested. Fore-wings with areole simple, vein 11 running into or anastomosing with 12. Hind-wings with vein 8 anastomosing with cell from near base to beyond middle." (Plate [II]., figs. 19 and 20.)
"This genus is especially characteristic of New Zealand, and is also found in South Asia, a few stragglers occurring in Europe and elsewhere."—(Meyrick.)
We have twelve species, several of which are very beautiful.
CHLOROCLYSTIS PLINTHINA, Meyr.
(Pasiphila plinthina, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. xx. 49.)
(Plate [VI]., fig. 8.)
This pretty species has occurred at Wellington.
The expansion of the wings is about ½ inch. All the wings are traversed by numerous obscure, wavy, reddish-yellow lines; the fore-wings have a dark shading near the base, a very large white blotch in the middle, and a dark chocolate-brown patch near the apex. The hind-wings have a large shaded white patch in the middle, a blackish dot near the base, and a series of brownish crescentic marks on the termen; the cilia of all the wings are pale brown barred with brownish-black. The termen of the fore-wings is very oblique, of the hind-wings rather irregular.
Many specimens of this insect are strongly tinged with green, and the shape and size of the white patches on the fore- and hind-wings are subject to slight variations.