'7Q [March, 



notes will at once recognise this as the " larger fruit-moth." Setting aside its de- 

 structive propensity as regards fruit, it is a creature of unusual interest, from 

 the wonderful development of tufts of long yellowish hair-scales on its leg?.] 



Prodenia Uttoralis, Bdv. — " Larvae were found feeding in the hot sunshine on 

 blossoms of prickly pear. They were fat and sluggish, and readily dropped off, 

 unless, as frequently happened, they had eaten right into the heart of the fleshy 

 calyx. To obtain food for my captives I was obliged to slash off the flowers with a 

 knife, and pick them up with the point. These prickly pears sometimes ripen in a 

 period of great scarcity, and the native people pick them up for food, carrying them 

 away in bags on tlieir heads. I have had women come with bad thorns, from them, 

 in their hands or feet, which required to be poulticed. I have also found this larva 

 in the garden feeding greedily upon cabbage." 



[The larvae figured are plump and fleshy, a little thickest behind ; head grey 

 or pale ochreous ; dorsal region of the body down to the spiracles slate-grey, with a 

 yellowish-white dorsal line, and on each side of this a row of thick deep black 

 triangles or V-marks, which are conspicuous ; spiracular line and under-surface 

 yellowish-white ; legs similar, but tipped with grey.] 



Ophiodes xylina, Distant. — October. — " This brown beauty I caught one night 

 down by the stepping-stones, on which I had just crossed the river, lantern in one 

 hand, killing bottle and net filling the other ; this moth floated up in the darkness 

 and wandered aimlessly up the steep bank, between the bushes, when I made a dash 

 and secured it— toithout breaking the bottle. On Christmas Day Harry persuaded 

 me that it was a holiday, and got me to go down to the river, where he was 

 paddling about. Presently he stopped, landed at the other side, climbed a tree 

 which overhung the river, and brought me an old nest. In it was reposing a fine 

 large half-looping caterpillar of an even pale brown colour, without distinct 

 markings. I fed it on Induba, the river tree, but in a day or two it vanished. I 

 examined the nest, but could find nothing, so left it in the box, and concluded that 

 the caterpillar had escaped. A short time afterwards, I found this beautiful moth 

 in the box, and looking more closely, saw that in emerging it had forced into view 

 the cocoon, which had been made in the bottom of the nest. Another larva was 

 found by a friend, also on an Induba tree by the river side. It was smooth and 

 slender, pale earthy brown, with a small hump on the back about half way along : 

 but the most noticeable thing about it was a clear, pearly-white stripe along the 

 under-surface of the body, in which were two lovely crimson spots between the first 

 two pairs of prolegs, and two dark spots, nearly black, between the other two pairs. 

 We went down and seai'ched the tree for more, but without success. This one spun 

 up at once, and was little more than a month before emerging. 



[This fine Noctiia, of which but little is known, is 2 to 2t inches in expanse of 

 wings, thorax and fore-wings reddish-brown or pale umbreous, the reniform stigma 

 darker, well formed, and edged with black; the orbicular indicated by a round 

 black dot ; first line very indistinct ; second touching it on the dorsal margin, but 

 sweeping off very obliquely three-fourths across the wing and then curving back to 

 the costa ; subterminal line displaced and irregular, composed of black dots, whicli 

 as they approach the apex of the wing, become intensified into black clouded spots. 

 Hind-wings golden-brown at the base, broadly smoky-brown behind ; cilia reddish- 

 brown. 1 



