Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/232

182 of the wings not exceeding an inch and two lines. The anterior wings are ferruginous, with a silvery margin, the surface with numerous transverse lines formed of tufts of a chesnut colour, changeable in different lights. The posterior wings are dull white; thorax and abdomen light brown. The larva (Plate XXII. fig. 3) is of very singular aspect, broad, thick, and massive, with four reddish protuberances on the anterior part of the body, and four behind. These knobs it has the power of opening at pleasure, and darting out eight rays or bunches of little stings of a yellow colour. The general hue of the body is grey, with numerous black spots and streaks, the back with a large pale-coloured patch, marked with several curved black figures. There are likewise two reddish tufts on the head, and two others at the hinder extremity. It feeds on the leaves of the stringy bark tree of the colonists; changes to a pupa in the beginning of February, fastening itself to the stem of a leaf, and spinning a close case in the form of an egg, which it agglutinates by the moisture of its mouth into a hard crust of a brown colour, appearing like a kind of fruit hanging on the tree (fig. 4). It remains in this state twenty-two days, and is on the wing in the same month.

The wound inflicted by the little fascicles of stings is described by Lewin as very painful and venomous, and it darts them forth whenever it is alarmed by the motion of any thing approaching. They must prove a very powerful defence against birds and many other enemies. It is to be regretted