1001.] 191 



FURTHER NOTES ON SOUTH AFRICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY rfiA>CKS BARRETT ; EDITED BT C. G. BARRETT, V.P.E.S. 



{Continued from Vol. 36, ;9. 146). 



[In the following notes the original observations, extracted from 

 letters received from my sister, are within inverted commas. My own 

 remarks thereon are within square brackets. — C. G. B.] 



Hemicha sinilax. — "I was staying with a friend at Unitata, and we had all 

 been out together. When coming in through the garden my friend said, ' Here is a 

 caterpillar for you.' It was on a lilac bush, and on searching the bush we found 

 four more like it, and three of anotlier colour, but of the same form, all handsome 

 caterpillars. The five were hairy, dark red, or indian-red, with tiny black rings 

 enclosing white dots all over the red area, and on each segment a dark ridge on 

 which the hairs grew ; head orange colour. The remaining three had a clear 

 yellow or white ground colour, with black ridges. In size, shape, and the hairs or 

 spines, all were alike ; also they all fed together and spun up together, and I can 

 see no difference in their cocoons, which are very pretty, ornamented with pieces of 

 the leaves of the lilac. The five red larvae produced the smaller specimens, males ; 

 the three yellow or white ones, females. I meant to figure them, but failed to do so 

 before they spun up. I fed them on the lilac, and after my return home my friend 

 sent more of this to feed them upon, but they were nearly full grown, and soon 

 spun up. The lilac cannot be their sole food since it never grows wild here." 



[Later.] " I was again at Umtata at the end of May, and saw another cater- 

 pillar which a lady was feeding on privet. The pattern is most beautiful, the black 

 markings being of different shapes on the indian-red ground, somewhat like a 

 Paisley shawl pattern, the spines or hairs black ; the dots white or yellow. There 

 was Smilax, two species, one a creeper, the other larger, in the garden, and these 

 plants also grow in the forests, but the larvas do not seem to be found upon them." 



[Still later.] " I have received this moth and am sending it. It is spoiled, but 

 it has instructed a whole school ! I have secured the chrysalis case. The females 

 had that curious mealy-looking powder in rings round their bodies when they 

 emerged." 



[This is so very remarkable a moth that it deserves some detailed notice. In the 

 male the hind margin of the fore-wings is so hollowed out, and the apex is so 

 abruptly squared, that it looks much as though some mischievous child had operated 

 upon it with a pair of scissors. The hind-wings are narrow, with the anal angle 

 produced. The antennae are very short, strongly pectinated to less than one half 

 tlieir length, the apical half simple. The female is much larger, with short antennae, 

 simple or rather minutely notched, and the wings broader and more filled out. In 

 both sexes there is on the fore-wings, at the apex of the discal cell, a large three or 

 four lobed shining diaphanous spot, divided by the nervures, and on the hind-wings 

 a smaller and more horse-shoc-shapcd similar transparent spot. The " mealy- 

 looking powder " referred to by my correspondent is worthy of special attention. 

 It has very much the appearance stated, but -actually consists of scales much lai'ger, 

 and especially far broader, than the usual scales, strap -shaped, or almost spatulate 



