150 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



LARVA AND PUPA OP BATOCERA WALL AC EI, THOMS. 

 By W. J. Rainbow, F.L.8., Entomolo,j?ist. 



A SHORT time ago, the Trustees of the Australian Museum were 

 presented with a small collection of Insects from Samarai, or 

 Dinner Island, British New Guinea. These had been gathered 

 from time to time by the donor, the Rev. C. W. Abel, in the field 

 of his labours, and amongst them were included larval and pupal 

 forms of that huge Longicorn, Batocera wallacei, Thorns. 



In respect of the former, which is apparently nearly fully grown 

 a brief description may be interesting. The animal is nearly four 

 inches long, footless, gradually tapering posteriorly, as is most 

 frequently the case with Longicorn larvje ; the head is short, broad, 

 flat, corneous, punctate, black, and provided with short, strong, 

 incurved mandibles ; the pro-thoracic segment is much larger than 

 those succeeding, and of a glossy mahogany-brown hue, the anterior, 

 posterior and lateral angles, both above and below, are dirty 

 yellowish-brown, and rough ; the other segments are fleshy, 

 yellowish, and all, with the exception of the two last, provided 

 both above and below, with large, rough, transversely oval, granu- 

 lated patches ; these are, of course, the organs of locomotion. 



The pupa is large, soft, and of a greenish hue, with yellowish 

 dorsal and lateral patches ; in other respects it presents the usual 

 appearance of Longicorns at this stage of their e.xistence. The 

 wings and legs are folded against the sides, and the feet doubled 

 under; the enormous antenna; are turned back against the sides of 

 the body, the third and succeeding joints being coiled round and 

 round, something like the mainspring of a watch. 



The adult insect is so well known, that there is no need to 

 to describe* it here. 



See Arch. Ent., i., p. 447, pi. xviii., fig. 1. 



