Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/123

104 resemblance. The Caterpillar on the larva of which this grows is that of the Hepialus virescens, a moth belonging to the section Heterocera of Doubleday, and from its rapid flight known as the Swift Moth.

In 1857, a species differing in no way, so far as we can judge from dried species, from the former (although the larva is somewhat more attenuated than that figured by Hooker,) was discovered in Tasmania, and we are indebted to the kindness of W. K. Hawkes, Esq., of Franklin Village, Launceston, to whom the scientific world owes much of what is known on the Natural History of this interesting family, for a very well selected series of specimens, the plant arising in all, as in the former case, from the nape of the- neck, and in one individual also from the lateral spiracles, a circumstance to which our attention was called, prior to receiving any specimens so attacked, in a very obliging communication on the subject from Professor McCoy. The larva varies from two to three and a half inches, and the fungus from one to seven inches.

Another species (figure ), the S. Gunnii, was found in 1844, very abundantly at the back of Mr. Hawkes' garden in Tasmania,—it is totally unlike the former, the larva being of a lighter color, and varying from one to three and a half inches in length, and the fungus from one to eight inches, very black at the head, which is clavate; in some instances two stems arising from the same source. Of this species Mr. Hawkes writes:—"It is found generally under young Wattles or Gums, immediately after the first autumnal rains (about March). The Fungus with one to five stems, but generally with only one, usually