Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 6 (October 1, 1932.)

Hobbies Corner. — Interesting Insects

page 53

Hobbies Corner.
Interesting Insects.

Spring finds the butterflies with us and some of the finest specimens are with Mr. C. E. Clarke, the entomologist at the Auckland Memorial Museum.

I am sure you would like to visit Mr. Clarke in his room. On his piled-up desks, amongst his microscopes, nets, setting-boards and books, are bottles of fearsome looking bugs and snakes preserved in spirits. These are always being sent to him from various parts of the world. It is a good thing they are safely corked up and quite dead. They look terribly fierce.

“Before I show you the butterflies, have a look at these moths,” says Mr. Clarke as he pulls out drawer after drawer. Moths! thousands of them, from white shimmering midgets to big beauties, which certainly would startle you if they came flopping around your lamps at night. One of the prettiest is the green Puriri moth. It settles on the well-known Puriri tree which has big dark green leaves. The Puriri caterpillar bores tunnels through the trunks. Over the trap-door it weaves a boll, a tough and silky covering which resembles a scar or marking of the tree bark. The caterpillar and its tunnel is then completely hidden from enemies.

But for cunning ways of protecting her insects from enemies, nature could hardly better the way she has made the stick insects. They look just like twigs on branches. Many have little spikes sticking upon their backs which look like thorns. Other insects resemble broken leaves. The Chloroclystis butterfly also has a disguise. It looks like a small patch of lichen and so, when resting, birds do not see it Some butterflies look like blossoms and fallen Autumn leaves. The Erebia
“Oh! there is sweetness in the mountain air.”—Byron. (Photo, Elsie K. Morton.) The ski-ing party at the Hermitage, Mt. Cook, includes Dobbin and the sledge.

“Oh! there is sweetness in the mountain air.”—Byron.
(Photo, Elsie K. Morton.) The ski-ing party at the Hermitage, Mt. Cook, includes Dobbin and the sledge.

butterfly which is found in the snow regions, 5,000 feet above sea level, is protected from the cold by the fact that it is black. Black absorbs the heat more readily than any other colour. So when the sun shines, the Erebia drys its wings in the sunshine and goes back underneath a rock feeling quite warm for many hours afterwards.

New Zealand's most beautiful butterfly is the Hypolimnas bolina which has been found in the Waitakere Ranges, near Auckland. It is dark blue with large heliotrope and white spots.

The “Wanderer” butterfly, which is found in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia, is occasionally found in New Zealand. It's wings are four inches across and are ochre coloured with black tracings and spotted with dots.

“On one visit to Adelaide” says Mr. Clarke, “I caught sight of one of these Wanderers just as I arrived. Dropping my suitcase, I ran after it and caught it under my hat.”

Have you ever caught one of these?

Next month Mr. Clarke will tell us some most interesting and unusual facts about our native birds and his explorations in the heart of Southland.

* * *