Kōrero: Magazines and periodicals

This illustration of a giant moth appeared in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, the colony's first scientific journal,in 1872. The moth was discovered by Walter Buller and Gilbert Mair during an expedition into the Ruahine Range in 1867, and Buller named it Porina mairiafter Mair. It was reported to have a wing span of 150 millimetres, as large as the pūriri moth. No other specimens of the moth have been found and the one collected by Buller was subsequently lost. This is the only image of it.