76 [March, 



FURTHER XOTES ON SOUTH AFRICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY FUANCES BAUKKTT; EDITED liY C. G. BAKUETT, F.E.S. 



( Co lit in ued fro m page 38) . 



Olottula CBrithys) pancralii, Cyr. — "This species, of which 1 send a painting 

 of the larva, has caused nie some trouble and research. A long time ago Mrs. G. 

 sent me a few larvje from Umtala. I took this sketch, and afterwards they all died, 

 80 I have been looking ever since for others. Going over to Umtata, a lady told 

 me, with grief, that she had been obliged to cut back all her red lilies, for that the 

 horrid caterpillars were eating them all away, and she could not get rid of the 

 latter in any other way. Going to look at the remains, and roots, we found that the 

 olTender was the larva that I wanted. From these larva; the moths are now 

 (March 18th) emerging. They pass through their changes very quickly ; and some 

 of the chrysalides change upon the surface of the earth without any attempt at a 

 cocoon. The moth must fly only at night, for it is very sluggish by day. I have 

 never seen it feeding at (lowers, and rarely attracted by light — though one or two 

 have certainly come to this attraction in July. I have now found hirvtu at home, 

 which are still feeding. The food-plant is scarlet Natal lily, but there is another 

 bulbous plant that they like {Amaryllis ?), it has wider leaves, and a curious tripled 

 bloom, very large and heavy, and of a flaming orange and green ; growing in damp 

 hollows and near the streams." 



[The larva is figured as moderately plump, smooth, with segments rather well 

 divided ; head orange-red ; legs and prolegs of the same colour, tipped with black ; 

 bod}' pale yellow, with a broad black band across every segment, the intermediate 

 spaces somewhat latticed with grey-black, and the segmental divisions tinged with 

 orange-red.] 



Sphinf/ovwrpha chlorea. Cram., Monfeironis, Butl. — " I have had sucii a find 

 to-night (June 17th). Going out late to cut mimosa for my prisoners I fouiul a 

 very pretty green caterpillar, which I wanted, for those already in hand had 

 hastened to spin up before I could paint one properly. Going out again later I 

 found half a dozen good sized ones, also some small, and a few quite tiny — not less 

 than a dozen altogether. I found these by searching the tips of the mimosa 

 branches, they were eating the young tender leaves. It is useless to search for 

 them in the day unle.^s everything is moist after a rain,aild I cannot tell where they 

 hide. This larva is a double looi)er in its manner of walking ; indeed, it has a 

 snaky walk and a wriggle ; it has a lovely crimson band which shows only when it 

 loops, also white regular markings on a green ground, but no hairs ; its first pair of 

 prolegs is not so clearly defined as the rest." 



February li)th. — " You will remember my telling you of one night when I found 

 a number of beautiful green and white caterpillars with a red band, feeding on the 

 young tips of mimosa, and was beguiled into staying out very late collecting a lot 

 of them. Some that I found then were very small, letting themselves down by a 

 thread when the light apjieared ; these were not so brilliantly coloured as the large 

 ones, and very speedily most of them turned brown. I did not know whether this 

 change of colour was caused by captivity, but very soon .Arthur called my attention 



