CUT- WORM MOTHS. 77 



observed, but there are probably several. It has been 

 noticed in America that, in the case of an allied insect, a 

 species, too, ofLeucania, each female moth lays from 500 

 to 700 eggs. It was noticed in the Brisbane district, in 

 1887, the caterpillars, the progeny of those grubs which 

 had hybernated, were feeding early in September, and 

 that the fully-grown insects were depositing their eggs 

 from tbe 25tli of September onwards. Caterpillars of these 

 moths may be found in pastures throughout the year, 

 but it is only when the winter has been mild, and has 

 been succeeded by a spring favorable to vegetation, 

 that the pests increase to such a numerical extent as to 

 become noticeable. It is then, too, that they change 

 their habits, and in quest of the larger supply of food 

 which they then require, migrate, and, in order to get 

 their share of it, feed by day as well as by night." Re- 

 ferring to one pest {Agrofis spi?ia) or the so-called 

 " Buo'ono: Moth," so named from its havino- been found in 

 countless numbers on some of the highest peaks of the 

 Australian Alps. 



In Vol. I., 1890, of the Agricultural Gazette of New 

 South Wales, the late Mr. Olliff gives a most interesting 

 account of the uses which these moths are put to by the 

 natives of the Upper Tumut, New South Wales, and 

 quoting Mr. Sharp, who was an eye wdtness to this 

 singular aboriginal custom. Mr. Sharp says — "I made a 

 trip in, I think, the summer of 1865, in company with 

 Kobert V3^ner and two blackfellow^s, to the summit of one 

 of the highest peaks of the Bugong Mountain (not Mount 

 Kosciusko, but one of the same range of mountains), 

 called by the native darkies ' Numbeyadang ' ; the peak 

 adjoining it on the south is called ' Coonoondhrain,' and 

 the one to the nortli ' Burrut-bind-yahlany.' These 

 moths reside ' in the great fissures in the granite 

 rocks, right on top of the peaks, and their numbers are 

 as the sands on the sea shore. The moth is a dark 

 yellowish-brown or brownish-yellow^, about an inch long, 

 and very plump and fat in the body, and wdien properly 



