THE WATTLE GOAT MOTH. 107 



CHAPTER LVI. 



THE WATTLE GOAT MOTH. 



(^Zeuzera Eucalypti^ Boisd.^ 



Order : Lepidoptei-a. Family : Zeuzeridcp.. 



This large and very handsome moth is, unfortunately 

 for our timber supply, \eY\ common, although perfect 

 specimens, by reason of their being much torn during 

 flight, are difficult to obtain. The eggs of this moth are 

 deposited mostly in crevices of the bark of the thicker 

 branches of the wattle [Acacia decurrens\ and, when 

 liatched, the young larvae commence to feed, and, head 

 downwards, work into the interior of the tree attacked, 

 enlarging the cylindrical tunnel as they grow, and eat 

 their way downwards, often, as the late Professor McCoy 

 states, reaching to the roots. When young the larvae 

 are of a pinkish colour, but as they develop the grub 

 chanees to a more vellowish colour, and so remains until 

 it is about to assume the pupa state (see Fig. IIT.), the 

 larva is noticeable by the very singular shield-like and 

 horny plate on the back of the head, as shown in our 

 plate. The mandibles are short, stout, and of consider- 

 able strength, which enable the grub to gnaw the wood, 

 no matter how hard, with great rapidity. When about 

 to change into the pupa state it forms, as Professor 

 McCoy also tells us, a slight cylindrical cocoon from 

 4 inches to a foot long of silk, and sawdust-like grains of 

 wood as a lining to the end of its burrow. (This process 

 may easily be seen by any one interested.) When the 

 burrow terminates in a root, which not unfrequently 

 happens a few inches below the surface of the ground, 

 the cocoon is continued from the hole in the wood upwards 



