Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORT OF VICTORIA. ]_Insects. 



roots. When about to assume the pupa state it forms a slight 

 cylindrical cocoou from four inches to a foot long of silk and saw- 

 dust-like small grains of wood, as a lining to the end of its burrow. 

 When the burrow terminates in a root a few inches below the 

 surface of the ground, the cocoon is continued from the hole in 

 the wood upwards as far as close to the surface of the ground ; 

 but when the burrow ends in the surface of the trunk of the tree 

 above the ground level there is no prolongation of the cocoon. 

 In either case the pupa works itself forward by means of the little, 

 deflected, spines on the rings, pushing for half an inch or so 

 through the end of the cocoou before it bursts to allow the imago 

 to escape. 



The ovipositor of the females is of extraordinary length and 

 rigidity, equalling half the length of the abdomen when exserted, 

 but capable of being entirely retracted out of sight ; with this the 

 eggs are deposited deep in the crevices or fissures of the bark of 

 the trees, on the inner timber of which the larva feeds. 



Common in the winged state about Feljruary, flying in the 

 twilight, in all parts of the colony where Wattle trees abound. 



Explanation op Figukes. 



Plate 30. — Fig. 1, average specimen of male, natural size ; the right-hand pair of wings 

 separated from the body by a narrow space represent the under side. Fig. la, antennae of male, 

 magnified to show the bipectination confined to the basal half. Fig. 2, female, natural size, in 

 resting position to show the deflexion of the wings ; the antenuse laid back. Fig. 2a, one of 

 the antenna; of the female, magnified to show the absence of the pectination on the whole length 

 in that sex. Fig. 24, small portion of female antennae, further magnified. Fig. 3, posterior end 

 of abdomen of female with the ovipositor exserted. Fig. 4, pupa, natural size, viewed sideways. 

 Fig. 6, cocoon, with anterior part of pupa projecting and burst open as left by the matli on 

 emerging. Fig. 6, young bright carmine stage of growth of the larva, showing the broad, brown 

 speckled, corneous shield on the anterior end, with the larva in the cylindrical burrow which it 

 forms in the wood of the Acacia, working as usual downwards. Fig. 7, pale cream-colored nearly 

 half -grown larva, natural size, viewed in profile. 



Frederick McCoy. 



By Authority ; John Feekes, Government Printer. 

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