DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF LAMIA. 147 



plished by his touching the one before him, this one commu- 

 nicated the fact to the next in advance, and so on till the in- 

 formation reached the leader, when the whole line was again 

 put in motion. On counting the number of caterpillars I 

 found it te be 154, and the length of the line 27 feet. I next 

 took the one which I had abstracted from the line, and which 

 remained coiled up, across the line ; he immediately unrolled 

 himself, and made every attempt to get admitted into the pro- 

 cession, after many endeavours he succeeded and crawled in, 

 the one below falling into the rear of the interloper. I sub- 

 sequently took out two caterpillars about fifty from the head 

 of the procession ; by my watch I found the intelligence was 

 conveyed to the leader in thirty seconds, each caterpillar 

 stopping at the signal of the one in his rear ; the same effect 

 was observable behind the break, each stopping at a signal 

 from the one in advance ; the leader of the second division 

 then attempted to recover the lost connection ; that they are 

 unprovided with the senses of sight and smell appeared evi- 

 dent, since the leader turned right and left and often in a 

 wrong direction when within half an inch of the one imme- 

 diately before him : when he at last touched the object of his 

 search, the fact was communicated again by signal, and in 

 thirty seconds the whole line was in rapid march, leaving the 

 two unfortunates behind, who remained perfectly quiet with- 

 out making any attempt to unroll themselves. I learn from 

 a medical gentleman here that these caterpillars feed on the 

 Eucalyptus, and that when they have completely stripped a 

 tree of its leaves they congregate on the trunk and proceed 

 in the order here described to another tree. The caterpillars 

 I saw must be nearly full grown, measuring about 2j inches 

 each in length. 



I have seen the empty shells of chrysalides four inches 

 long ; the moths from them must be as large as Erebus Strix. 

 We have some very beautiful flowers. Orchidea have been 

 very numerous. Mimosas, and Epacrida? are just now fading. 

 In the plains there are Ranunculi in full bloom, and an ex- 

 tremely beautiful double Centaurea. There are tree mallows 

 by the river six or eight feet high. T shall send a few lizards, 

 a fine snake sixty-one inches long, and a few scorpions. — A. 

 H. Davis. — Adelaide, South Australia, 6th September, 1838. 



Description of a new species of Lamia. — 

 Lamia Lucia. Lanuginosa, brunnea, capite obscuriori, prothoracis maculae 

 tres laete flavi ; elytra lsete flava, marginibus scutellari et costati brunneis; 

 caetera brunnea. (Corp. long. 1.5 unc. lat. .35 unc.) 



Clothed with a thick coating of short hairs. The antenna are ra- 

 ther shorter than the body, and, together with the head, are of a deep 



