SOUTH AFIMOAX ];A(i\V<)KMS. 1 5o 



the old bags are always found in shady and protected places, 

 as mentioned above. 



Dispersal is effected by the wind as the primary ageut. 

 The young larvas, when ready to abandon the parent bag, 

 presumably crawl about until they are in a position where the 

 wind can pick them up. Only then do they begin to spin a 

 long thread of silk in the same manner as the larvffi of 

 A. junodi, and are thus carried about, while animals and 

 birds may play a subsidiary role in this process of dispersal. 



The Bags. — The bag of the full-grown larva is about 

 40 to 45 mm., consisting of a long, oval case of silk, mixed 

 with small particles of leaf and stem, and covered with long 

 blades of grass or long, narrow strips of midrib and other 

 parts of the leaf of the food-plant. These are arranged 

 lengthwise, but attached to the bag only at one end — the 

 anterior end of the bag. Here they are fastened for a short 

 distance, as far as the larva can reach without leaving its bag, 

 the remainder of the stick projecting at a tangent. Several 

 rows of these furnish the covering, and as each succeeding 

 one covers the anterior part of its predecessor, the entire 

 covering resembles a thatched surface, suggesting the popular 

 name of the "Thatched bagworm " (PI. XIII, figs. 1-7). 



Food-plants and Economic Importance. — From the 

 construction of the majority of the bags which we have been 

 able to collect we must conclude that the natural food of this 

 species is furnished by various grasses. But specimens have 

 also been found feeding on the wattle, while Mr. Bell-Marley, 

 of Durban, mentions that it feeds on "pomegranate and other 

 shrubs." When on the wattle it was invariably found feeding 

 on the lower branches, so that it is essentially a low herbage 

 feeder; but as we have seen bags made up entirely of wattle 

 leaves, it may in time develop into a wattle feeder and then 

 become injurious. 



The Pupa. 



When pupation time approaches the larva3 show a tendency 

 to become gregarious, in so far as they all seek a place of 



