MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21315, 17 October 1932, Page 12

MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES

VARIETIES IN NEW ZEALAND TALK AT THE MUSEUM A talk on moth 3 and butterflies, especially those found in New Zealand, was given by Mr. J. B. Nevill to an interested group at the War' Memorial Museum yesterday. The lecture was the third of a series of Sunday afternoon talks on natural history subjects. Mr. Nevill approached his subject from the collector's point of view, and illustrated his remarks from a number of small cases of mounted specimens, thjit were handed round. Among these was a case of the ornithoptera, or bird butterflies, recently secured by Mr. A. T. Pycroft in the Solomon Islands. Their great size—they measured up to Bin. from wing tip to wing tip—and brilliance of varied hues were a revelation of what tropical butterflies may be. As New Zealand's butterflios do not number more than ten varieties, only six of which are found in the Auckland district, these were all shown in one case. Native moths, on the other hand, number quite 700 varieties, some of which are very small, and many of these wero shown and described. Special atterftion was drawn to the huge puriri moth, most showy of them all. Mr. Pycroft, who presided, expressed the thanks of tho audience to Mr. Nevill.