144 [June, 1900. 



Euti'icha pithyocampa, Cr. — " Tliese three I reared from a great group of hairy- 

 caterpillars, which E. found all clustered together on a rose bush. I got several 

 others from other places, and had a large tin full, but the fowls got at it and I only 

 saved three. It was pi-OToking, for I had fed them for weeks. I found that they 

 clustered together in the same manner when they wanted to change their skins. The 

 caterpillar is three inches long, very prettily marked with brown, black, and white, 

 but is chiefly remarkable for the soft hairy fringe of long greenish greyish-white 

 hairs all round it, sweeping the surface upon which it rests. I think that the black 

 on the body consisted of black hairy tufts, but am writing from memory. I in- 

 tended to paint one, but was too busy when they were full grown. The very large 

 heavy moth (?) is the fruit of a shooting excursion. Harry was out late shooting 

 crows, and this moth fell from a Euphorbia tree ; he marked the slight flutter of its 

 wings, and where it fell, found it on a piece of fallen bark, got a pin and also some 

 nicotine out of the pipe of his dusky henchman, pinned his trophy to the piece of 

 bark and brought it home in triumpli undamaged, except that the nicotine has made 

 a black mark on the back of the thorax." 



[All these are of a redder tint and coarser texture of scales than is usual in this 

 fine species of Eutricha, and the transverse lines are slightly more wavy and diffused, 

 yet I think not more so than would indicate a local variety. This insect is in no 

 way connected with the European Cnethocampa pitt/ocampa.'] 



[From a very recent letter.] " I have now had the caterpillars from many 

 sources. They have a way of congregating, generally on the stump of a rose bush, 

 or on a tree, when they want to change their skins, I obtained most of them that 

 way. One fine lot of them were under the bend of the stem of a wattle tree ; 

 another lot were found when small in a dead aloe-stump. Sometimes I think that 

 a wet or stormy afternoon drives them to such a situation. The favourite food is 

 rose, or else the white thorny acacia ; I have had single caterpillars from Mimosa, 

 which much preferred the other diet ; and a lot found very young upon maiden- 

 hair fern also chose rose as soon as they could get it. They are not very easy to feed 

 up ; one lot took a bad turn when nearly full grown and died off ; they had been 

 feeding about five months. There is considerable difference in size, those which 

 have been fed up from tiny larvte being very much smaller than those found full-fed 

 and ready to spin. Some of the last large ones had a pretty tinge of purple at 

 intervals along the back." 



[With this information was a figure of the full grown larva, which shows the 

 dense prostrate lateral fringe of depressed blue-grey hairs, extending on each side to 

 more than the breadth of the larva ; the head orange-yellow ; the second segment 

 white at the top, with a broad, bright red band across the hind edge, and large black 

 blotches on the shoulders ; remainder of the body bright red, except the dorsal 

 region, which is broadly but irregularly white, and has a large black blotch each 

 upon the third, fourth, and eleventh segments. The half grown larva is umbreous, 

 with the lateral fringe short and of the same colour, a row of white spots down the 

 back, and black-brown spots between them and on tufts at the sides. Dead and 

 dried larvaj sent at the same time attest the correctness of the drawings ; pupse are 

 sent also, which are dark red-brown, with abundance of very short, lighter red bristles 

 upon the back of the thoracic and abdominal regions ; and cocoons, which are large 

 and rather loose and soft, of pale yellow or pale greenish-bi-own silk, spun up among 

 the leaves of the food-plant, and often fixed firmly to the twigs.] 



