624 Transactions . — Botany . 



it will be found that the alimentary canal of the insect still 

 remains perfect, only the flesh having apparently been con- 

 verted into the white cork-like vegetable substance. Outside 

 of this there is a thin brown covering, which I have always 

 regarded as the skin of the insect ; and, as this is thicker and 

 darker in colour at the horny portions, such as the head and 

 feet, and these retain their exact form, even to the claws of 

 the feet, I do not think that any one would be likely to regard 

 them as other than remaining portions of the original insect. 

 The total quantity of them, however, is so small that I hardly 

 fancy that they would give any appreciable result to a chemi- 

 cal test, such merely as the smell of chitine when burnt. 



I have usually seen Sphoerias dug out in the late autumn 

 and early winter months. In earlier autumn they are of a 

 green tint, and so are more liable to escape notice ; and earlier 

 still in the season I have often seen the live caterpillars dug 

 out. They are of about the colour of parchment, and might 

 easily be mistaken for silkworms. I believe that the Maoris 

 are right in stating that they are the larvae of the large green 

 night-moth CEpialus ; yet, in the course of the many years 

 during which I lived for the most part in the bush, and kept a 

 look-out for them, I never saw the caterpillars feeding on the 

 leaves of plants of any kind, though the axoeto (larva of the 

 sphinx-moth) may often be observed on the convolvulus, par- 

 ticularly on the stunted form which grows among the sandhills 

 near the sea-coast. Some people fancy that the aiveto is the 

 vegetating caterpillar ; but this is a mistake — they are quite 

 different ; and the former is unmistakable, from its larger size, 

 varying colours (green, yellow, or reddish-brown), and par- 

 ticularly by having a sort of horn growing erect on the tail- 

 end of the insect. 



