214 C. B. HARDENBERG. 



this bag, and the naine delicatissima befits the little bag 

 as well as the pretty moth which emerges from it. 



Food- pi ants. — The only plant on which we have found 

 the species is Desmodium incanum D.C., a small, creeping, 

 loAv-growing leguminous herb, which the late Medley Wood, 

 of the Colonial Herbarium in Durban, pronounced an imported 

 weed. Its original native food-plant is as yet unknown. On 

 Desmodium it is locally very common : Mr. Piatt and the 

 writer found over a liundred bags within a space of about 

 twenty yards square. Their occurrence, however, is not 

 constant : the following season there may be hardly a single 

 one on the same area, while a patch a hundred yards distant 

 may contain them in great numbers. 



Number of Broods in a Season. — The life-cycle of the 

 species is not yet fully known. There is probably a considei'- 

 able overlapping of broods, and most likely there is more than 

 one generation during the season. 



One male emerged in Febiuary, 1916, and from specimens 

 obtained later, in March and April, the males usually make 

 their appearance from April 25th to May 6th, but the 

 specimen found by Mr. Munroe at Singerton, Barberton 

 District, Transvaal, disclosed the moth in June. 



In the box containing the male which emerged in February, 

 young larva3 from another bag were also found, and, when 

 collected at the end of March, bags of various sizes were 

 observed . Since D e s m o d i u m i n c a n u m is green throughout 

 the year at the coast, there is always food at hand for the 

 larva, and the species breeds all the year round. 



Larva. — Illustrations of the larva are given in text-fig. 20, 



C-K. 



Male Pupa. — Length 5 mm., dark brown, shining, head 

 and thorax turning olive-brown towards maturity. Pupa 

 truncated in front, head deflected ventrally so that the area 

 around clypeus, base of eyes and eye-collar forms a shallow, 

 transverse furrow (text-fig. 21, a, b). Wing-cases reach to 

 the posterior edge of the 3rd abdominal segment. Antennal 

 cases long, reaching down to about three-quarters the length 



