Motiti Island is an offshore island in the Bay of Plenty, 6 miles to the north of the Te Puke coast and 10 miles north-eastwards by sea from Tauranga. The island reaches an altitude of 186 ft in its southern half and is composed of volcanic rocks, mainly hornblende and pyroxene andesites, probably of Miocene age (11–25 million years ago). Similar rocks occur on the adjacent mainland, west of Te Puke, and the presence of a submarine ridge linking these and the Motiti rocks suggests that they were formerly a continuous mass. The volcanic rocks at the southern tip of the island (Wairere Bay and Motiti Spit) are veneered with sands, silts, and pumice tuffs, laid down during the Pleistocene period (10,000–1½ million years ago) when the Bay of Plenty coastline extended further out to sea. Similar and slightly older sediments, trimmed back by the sea, form cliffs behind the Ohope and Opotiki coasts and at Maketu, on the Te Puke coast.

On 2 November 1769 during his first voyage, Cook sailed close inshore to Motiti where he reported the most extensive complex of fortified villages he had yet seen. In his journal he refers to it as the “Flat Island”. His interpreter, Tupaia, conversed with the Maoris in the vicinity. In 1832 Te Haramiti, an old Ngapuhi tohunga who dreamed of emulating the feats of Honga Hika and Te Morenga, brought a small war party (140 men) to Mayor Island and easily overcame its few inhabitants. He then took his party to Motiti where they awaited expected reinforcements from the north. When 1,000 warriors were seen approaching in war canoes they were welcomed from the shore; these, however, turned out to be Ngaiterangis who landed and annihilated the Ngapuhi party. This defeat, following that of Pomare in the Waikato, caused the Ngapuhi to cease their depredations. About 1845 there was a dispute between the Whakatane and Tauranga tribes over the ownership of the island. This was settled amicably, neither side taking possession. Twenty years later, when the Government was negotiating to purchase Maori lands in the district, the dispute flared up again. By this time the Whakatane claim to the island appears to have passed to the Arawas. There was considerable tension in Tauranga for a while because the Maoris were also being pressed to sell to local speculators.

Motiti Island, which is now farmed, is a habitat of the tuatara. The meaning of the name Motiti is obscure. As it stands, the word means “extirpated” and may commemorate the Ngaiterangi victory of 1832; it may, however, be a contraction of Motu-iti (literally “little island”).

POPULATION: 1956 census, 93 (75 Maori, 18 Europeans); 1961 census, 61 (42 Maori, 19 Europeans).

by Thomas Ludovic Grant-Taylor, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt and Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

New Zealand butterflies lack the brilliance of colour of those of more tropical countries and it is of interest that the really spectacular groups are completely absent from our fauna. The family Lycaenidae, which embraces the “blues” and “coppers”, is represented here but the native species are not spectacular. Many members of this family are associated with ants but in New Zealand this relationship does not appear to occur. The little grass blue (Lycaena labradus) is common in the warmer parts of the country, and the coppers of the genus Chrysophanus are not uncommon on stony riverbeds where Muehlenbeckia grows.

The most conspicuous of our butterflies belong to the family Nymphalidae. It is to this group that the introduced “Wanderer” or “Monarch” butterfly belongs. Dodonidia helmsi is a very attractive butterfly found in beech forest areas but very restricted in distribution. Argyrophenga antipodum is a variable, rather dusky species which occurs in tussock areas, mostly at moderate altitudes, while two species of Erebia, which are almost black, occur in alpine meadows and about high screes and rock faces.

Among our better-known species are the “Painted Lady” (Pyrameis cardui) and the “Red Admiral” (Pyrameis gonerilla) whose caterpillars feed on nettle (Urtica spp.).

by Bruce Boucher Given, M.SC., Entomology Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Nelson.

Many native moths are of economic importance as pest species, the most notable probably being the subterranean grass caterpillar moths (Oxycanus spp.) which are second only to the common grass grub beetle (Costelytra zealandica) as pasture pests. In exotic forest plantations sometimes the looper caterpillars of the genus Selidosema cause considerable damage. The noctuid moths (rather heavy, large, dusk- or night-flying species) cause considerable damage to many plants. In this group are the “army-worm” caterpillars which, under suitable conditions, devastate large areas of pasture or crops.

The largest moth in New Zealand is the wood-boring hepialid, Charagia virescens, which is green or yellow with silvery wing markings; it frequently appears at night during wet summer weather. Another rather interesting species is the common “bag moth” whose caterpillars live within a suspended tough bag often covered with a camouflage of pieces of twigs, bark, and leaves. The females of this moth are wingless and often do not leave the larval case. This species is known to science as Oeceticus omnivorus and is sometimes responsible for considerable damage to trees, damage which would undoubtedly be of considerably greater importance were it not for the presence of several parasites which normally keep the moth populations to a low level.

It is a surprising fact that New Zealand, while possessing a fairly large and comprehensive moth fauna (nearly 1,200 species representative of 33 out of 61 families), is very poorly representative of butterflies, having only 16 species representing two families. Several species are not confined to this country.

(Hepialus virescens).

The puriri or ghost moth is the largest native moth of New Zealand. The wing span may be up to 15 cm. The predominant colour is bright green. The forewing is interspersed with paler or darker markings. The hind wings are of a lighter colour than the forewings. The adult moth is not common, but in summer specimens may be attracted to street lights or other bright lights. They are clumsy fliers and soon damage themselves. It is therefore rare to find a perfect specimen. The caterpillar is a wood borer and lives in the outer heart wood of the puriri, manuka, lancewood, wineberry, titoko and other native trees. It has adapted itself to some introduced trees such as the oak, apple, and willow. The feeding tunnels measure up to 10 mm in diameter, and the exit hole on the tree trunk is covered with a silken mat produced by the larva.

by Roy Alexander Harrison, D.SC., Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

(Nyctemera annulata).

This striking day-flying moth is very common throughout New Zealand and is recognisable by the jet-black wings bearing several white spots and the black and yellow abdomen. Not less striking is the caterpillar, mainly black with some red stripes, which is covered with tufts of black hairs. This caterpillar is the so-called “woolly-bear” which feeds on cinerarias and groundsel in urban areas and ragwort in farming areas.

by Roy Alexander Harrison, D.SC., Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

(Oeceticus omnivorous).

The empty or full cases of this moth are fairly common on trees throughout the country. The case, which is 2–3 in. in length when completed, is constructed by the caterpillar of a moth and is composed of a tough skin of silk in which is incorporated plant debris. The case is the permanent home of the developing caterpillar and of the adult female. The latter is a wingless moth while the male is fully winged and does not live in a case in the adult stage. But the caterpillar transports the case to the leaves upon which it feeds at night. During the day the case is sealed and affixed very firmly to a branch of the tree. Common host plants are macrocarpa and albizzia.

by Roy Alexander Harrison, D.SC., Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

The indigenous moss flora of New Zealand comprises almost 450 species and over 60 named varieties belonging to 57 families and representing 167 genera of which the following six are endemic, namely, Bellia, Bryodixonia, Cladomnion, Cryptopodium, Dichelodontium, and Tetraphidopsis. One-third of the species is restricted to New Zealand, while 24 are cosmopolitan. A large number are shared with Australia, Tasmania, and South America.

One-third of the mosses extends over the full length of the Dominion. Eight species are restricted to North Auckland, 35 are not found north of Banks Peninsula, and 20 others reach their southern limit in the northern portion of the South Island. Epiphytic mosses approximately equal those found on rocks or on earth. In the South Island, 54 species are restricted to the western side and 54 to the eastern side of the 50-in. isohyet.

Mosses are often confused with lichens, with hepatics, and even with tiny flowering plants. If a plant produces flowers or fruits, it cannot be a moss, and if it possesses true leaves it cannot be a lichen. Hepatics are less easily distinguished from mosses, but their leaves are commonly asymmetrical and much indented or lie in two overlapping rows, whereas in mosses the leaves are quite or nearly symmetrical and, apart from marginal serrations in some instances, are not indented. The setae bearing the spore capsules are translucent in most leafy hepatics, while in mosses they are green or coloured.

The leafy moss plant is termed a gametophyte and bears the minute sex organs – male antheridia and female archegonia. Fertilisation results in the production of a leafless sporophyte, which remains attached to the leafy plant and produces the spores which in turn initiate a new generation of gametophytes. This alternation of generations is characteristic both of mosses and of hepatics. A moss bearing spore capsules is not strictly one plant, but parent and child, the latter a permanent parasite on its parent.

Moisture and nourishment are absorbed mainly by the leaves, the rhizoids serving mainly to anchor the plant to its substratum. Mosses are classified into three main groups, termed Andreaeales or lantern mosses, Sphagnales or bog mosses, and Bryales, to which belong all the other species. Eight species of Andreaea and four of Sphagnum are recognised in New Zealand. These latter, however, display a great diversity of form.

In the Bryales the most advanced forms are Dawsonia superba and 15 representatives of the order Polytrichales. Specimens of Dawsonia, our largest and most robust moss, may on occasion attain a height of 30 in. though normally they rarely exceed a foot. Each plant has a central, erect, woody stem, surrounded by narrow linear leaves, except at the base, and in “fruiting” plants a stout terminal capsule with a peristome resembling a plug of cotton wool. Unlike those of most other mosses, the stem possesses a specialised water-conducting axis. It forms small colonies on the floor of humid forests.

Next in size is the subalpine moss Dendroligotrichum dendroides – which commonly carpets the floor of beech forests in the wetter areas. This has a long wiry stem terminated by leafy branches bearing either male or female organs, but not both. Sporophytes are uncommon in the North Island, but abundant in the South Island. A notable feature of this, and indeed of all the members of the genus Polytrichum and its allies, is the presence on the lower surface of each leaf of numerous parallel, longitudinal lamellae.

Of the mosses that produce terminal sporophytes the genera best represented in New Zealand are Bryum (21 species), Fissidens (15), Tortula (13), Macromitrium (11), and Dicranoloma and Funaria (10); while of genera with lateral sporophytes, Brachythecium and Sematophyllum each have eight species, and Camptochaete has seven. Pendulous epiphytic mosses belong to two related genera – Weymouthia, with two pale yellowish-green species, and Papillaria, with five species usually tinted reddish-brown or gold. In open and sub-alpine forests Weymouthia often assumes physiognomic importance, as do the various species of Dicranoloma on the forest floor, especially in montane beech forests. D. billardieri and D. plurisetum often form a continuous and somewhat treacherous carpet for extensive areas at a stretch, while in the wettest forests they sometimes build sub-globular mounds 1–3 ft in diameter, as also do two species of the hepatic genus Plagiochila.

In sub-alpine regions the dominant mosses belong to the four moss families – Andreaeaceae, Grimmiaceae, Dicranaceae, and Polytrichaceae; while swamps, bogs, and marshes are typically the home of the Sphagnaceae, Bartramiaceae, Dicranaceae, Bryaceae, and Amblystegiaceae. Several mosses are sub-aquatic, such as Blindia immersa or Fissidens muelleri, and three are regularly found on rocks in the bed of forest streams – Thamnium pandum, Fissidens rigidulus, and Cryphaea tasmanica, though at least a dozen can withstand periodic immersion.

Several anomalous mosses occur. These include Buxbaumia aphylla and B. novae-zealandiae; the former is unknown elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere though wide-ranging north of the Equator, and the latter is endemic. These are primitive mosses, apparently leafless, the only visible moss being an erect sporophyte protruding from the soil or bark,½ in. tall and bearing at the tip a more or less pointed, inclined capsule of unusual shape. More anomalous still is a minute moss with the ponderous name Ephemeropsis trentepohlioides, which grows on the terminal twigs of Coprosmas and other shrubs in humid areas. In this leafless moss the minute capsules and setae arise directly from a brown felt of protonemal threads which function as leaves. This species is also found in Tasmania.

Several mosses often lie unattached to the surface soil in forested areas, notably Echinodium hispidum and Camptochaete ramulosa. Here they multiply and spread, but do not produce sporophytes. The moss Dicranoloma menziesii occasionally forms globular or lenticular moss balls, also lying unattached to the earth, but more normally all three grow as epiphytes on forest trees.

In four related genera the various species spread their leafy branches in a plane parallel to the earth and at right angles to the incident light at the apex of an upright stem. Popularly known as umbrella mosses, they include several most attractive species, such as Mniodendron comosum, often golden brown with furry stems, or Hypnodendron marginatum, when a dozen or more sporophytes arise from the central area, each with a bright red seta. A few mosses commonly invade our lawns (for example, Thuidium furfurosum and Bryum truncorum).

Except in the number of species, the moss flora of New Zealand is not surpassed by that of any other land and, with the ferns, hepatics, and lichens, constitutes the principal ornament of our native forests.

by William Martin, B.SC., Lichenologist and School Teacher (retired), Dunedin.

A Handbook of New Zealand Mosses, Sainsbury, G. O. K. (1935); Flora of New Zealand, Martin, W. (1961); Bryologist, Vol. 61 (1958), “Moss Distribution in New Zealand”, Martin, W., Tuatara, Vol. 2 (1949), “Some Notes on Mosses with Key to Commoner New Zealand Genera”, Allison, K. W.

(1827–1904).

Politician and colonial administrator, Cook Islands.

A new biography of Moss, Frederick Joseph appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Frederick Joseph Moss was born in 1827 at Longwood, St. Helena, where his father was in business. His mother was Sarah, née Britton. He was educated at St. Helena Grammar School and, in 1840, went to Algoa Bay, South Africa, where he entered his uncle's business. During the Kaffir War he served as volunteer with the Cape Burghers and took part in several campaigns against the Zulus. He returned to St. Helena in 1847 to assist in his father's office. In 1857 he revisited South Africa, intending to settle in Natal; however, because he found the district plagued by locusts, he decided to emigrate to New Zealand. Arriving at Lyttelton in the Zealandia in 1859, Moss opened a mercantile business there; but when the Otago goldfields were proclaimed he transferred his interests to Dunedin, where he entered into partnership with Thomas Dick and became a director of several companies and financial institutions. In addition to his other interests he founded the Otago Daily Mail (1864) and entered provincial politics. From 1863 until 1867 he represented Dunedin City on the Provincial Council and acted as Provincial Treasurer on three occasions. In 1866, when the executive was defeated by Vogel, he was able to provide his successor with complete plans for the progressive construction and systematic financing of the Otago railways. Moss retired from the Council in January 1867 and, in the following year, joined the “cotton rush” to Fiji. He settled near Bau Levu' where he remained until the Franco-Prussian War depreciated the market for sea-island cotton. In 1869 Moss returned to New Zealand and lived at Parnell, where he accepted a temporary position with the Auckland Provincial Treasury; however, he soon relinquished this in order to become the first secretary of the Auckland Board of Education. On 20 February 1878 he was returned to represent Parnell in the House of Representatives. During his period in Parliament Moss travelled widely among the Pacific islands and, in 1888, was a member of the Royal Commission which investigated the feasibility of Vogel's confederation and annexation scheme. He retired from Parliament in 1890 when the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed him first British Resident in Rarotonga.

After the Cook Islands were annexed, the British Government attempted to establish native government over the group. As British Resident, Moss was given the task of introducing the new institutions and of ensuring that they functioned smoothly. Moss believed that the reason why native races tend to become demoralised after their contact with advanced European civilisations arose from the fact that the new governing classes, the European civil servants, were not disposed to treat them as equals. As European settlers became more numerous, a small élite society developed in which the natives were forced to associate more and more with the less desirable elements of the white population. As a consequence they became discouraged when they saw themselves gradually losing their former power and prestige. Moss therefore encouraged the islanders to participate in his Government and, before the end of his term, had established federal and island governments, courts, schools, and hospitals. In seven years he succeeded in breaking down many traditional tribal jealousies and in persuading the islanders to abandon some of their worst customs. With the exception of the Postmaster and Auditor, all Government officials and Judges were islanders whom Moss had trained personally for their jobs. During Moss's last years at Rarotonga, his Government incurred the enmity of the small European colony there. These worries caused his health to fail and led to his recall in September 1898. During the latter decades of the nineteenth century F. J. Moss was a very influential figure in the South Pacific and his advice was often sought by New Zealand and British governments of the day. He was a prolific pamphleteer on political subjects and also wrote several books. These include A School History of New Zealand (1889), Through Atolls and Islands in the Great South Sea (1889); and Notes on Political Economy from the Colonial Point of View, which appeared anonymously in 1897. A Maori scholar of note, he was the author of Native Lands and Their Incidents (1888) and Beautiful Shells of New Zealand (1908).

In 1853, at St. Helena, Moss married Emily Ann, the only daughter of Captain Carew. He died at Parnell, Auckland, on 8 July 1904. One of his sons, Edward George Britton Moss (1856–1916), was a goldfields lawyer and represented Ohinemuri in Parliament (1902–05).

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Auckland Star, 8 Jul 1904 (Obit)
• New Zealand Herald, 9 Jul 1904 (Obit).

(Culex pervigilans, Aedes notoscriptus, Opifex fuscus).

The first two species are of most concern to humans in New Zealand. Culex pervigilans is the common night biter and makes a high-pitched buzzing sound when in flight. It breeds prolifically in any still water such as in water tanks and in tins and bottles in rubbish dumps. It is capable of breeding throughout the year in the more northern parts of New Zealand.

Aedes notoscriptus is a silent mosquito and is the commonest daytime biter in New Zealand. It likewise breeds in still water but prefers more sheltered places for breeding than does Culex. Both species are particularly common and widespread in dull humid weather. Malaria does not occur in New Zealand, and neither of these two mosquitoes is a vector.

Opifex fuscus is of interest because it is a salt-water breeding mosquito. Larvae breed throughout the length of the New Zealand coastline in salt-water pools close to high-tide mark. Adults are robust insects slightly larger than the other two common New Zealand mosquitoes.

by Roy Alexander Harrison, D.SC., Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.