Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/146

122 live in the larva state; reflecting on the singularity of which, we are struck at the wonderful means of self-preservation which the great Author of Nature has bestowed on different members of the animal creation, among which we know insects of every country abound with examples. The great enemy against which these larvæ take such precaution, is the mantis or walking-leaf, which abound in New South Wales, devouring multitudes of larvæ in the day-time. The natives also seek these wood-boring caterpillars as a delicious article of food, climbing high trees and searching for them with great labour. In addition to the preceding species of Cryptophasa, Mr. Lewin has also described one of the Noctuidæ forming a section with the same name, in which the palpi are similar in form to those of the Bombycideous section, but the antennæ are thread-shaped in both sexes, and the tongue short and spiral, but sometimes scarcely discernible. The species is named C. strigata, and has light wainscot-coloured wings, the anterior with a brown stripe from the shoulder to the end, and the posterior with a broad silvery fringe, the whole insect being silvery, especially near the stripe. The larva of this species is provident and wood-boring, entering the sappy branches or slender stems of the Banksia serrata, where it forms a cell, having its entrance barricaded with a fabric of interwoven web and excrement; under which the larva conveys its food by nightly perambulations, that is, so much of a leaf of the above tree as it can