Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/145

Rh therefore is left out, and the larva hauls them gradually in as it consumes them. The pupa state continues for thirty-eight days, the moth appearing in the end of February. It frequents banks of rivers, ponds, and deep gulleys; these being the places where the trees it feeds on are usually found.

The larva bores downwards a cylindrical chamber in the centre of the stem of Pultenæa villosa, Willd., having the entrance arched over with a fabric of web and excrement, under which, having taken its food thither in its nightly excursions, it feeds during the day in secret security. Lewin informs us that all the larvæ of the genus Cryptophasa seal themselves in by an agglutinated covering across the cell or chamber where they transform to pupæ, through which, however, the moth can force its way from below; yet it is a strong bulwark against external foes, and effectually supplies the purposes of the old covering at the mouth of the cell, which falls off soon after the larva's final retirement. The group is named Cryptophasa, from the secret and secure manner in which this new and evidently natural division of moths