The perfect insect appears in November and December. It frequents brushwood, where it may be occasionally taken at rest on tree-trunks but more often dislodged from the foliage. It is not a very common species.
CHLOROCLYSTIS BILINEOLATA, Walk.
(Eupithecia bilineolata, Walk. 1246. E. muscosata, ib. 1246. Scotosia humerata, ib. 1362. Eupithecia semialbata, ib. 1708. E. cidariaria, Gn., Ent. Mo. Mag. v. 62. Cidiaria aquosata, Feld., pl. cxxxi. 33. Helastia charybdis, Butl., Cist. Ent. ii. 503. H. calida, ib. 504. Pasiphila muscosata, Meyr., Trans. N. Z. Inst. 50. P. bilineolata, ib.)
(Plate [VI]., fig. 9 type, fig. 10 variety.)
This beautiful little species is common, and generally distributed throughout the country.
The expansion of the wings is ¾ inch. The fore-wings are bright green with numerous wavy darker lines. There is a jagged transverse black line near the base, two at about one-fourth, enclosing a rather paler space; beyond this there are several rather irregular, fine black marks, and an obscure white patch below the apex; the cilia are dull green. The hind-wings are grey slightly tinged with reddish; the dorsum and termen are shaded with green, and there is a number of curved black lines on the dorsum; the cilia are dull greenish-grey. The termen of the fore-wings is slightly bowed, and all the wings are finely scalloped and sharply outlined in black.
A very distinct variety frequently occurs in which the entire ground colour is orange-yellow. This variety can be artificially produced by exposing a typical specimen to the fumes of bruised laurel leaves. Intermediate forms may also be found, but are much scarcer than either the typical form or the variety.
The larva (according to Mr. Purdie[[26]]) is about ½ inch long; colour brownish, surface very rugged; body tapering somewhat towards the head. Two pairs of small dorsal tubercles about the middle, the posterior pair being larger; oblique lateral dark markings faintly seen on dark ground colour; below lighter. Food-plants: Aristotelia, Leptospermum ericoides, Rubus (?), and Muhlenbeckia (?). Found in December and January.
The perfect insect appears from September till May, and is often very common. It rests on tree-trunks with outspread wings, in which position it so closely resembles a patch of moss that it is extremely difficult to detect, even when specially searched for.
CHLOROCLYSTIS ANTARCTICA, n. sp.