1903.] 79 



TcBniopyga sylvana, Walk. — " I have been watching the plants (yellow 

 snowdrops) where we found the larvse last year, while they were in bloom, but could 

 find none. Now that the snowdrops are fully in seed I went out after a rain, and 

 found a lot of larvje. The young ones clustered in and on the seed-pods, feeding in 

 many cases on those which are already brown and ripe, and in full daylight. The 

 question as to these now is — Do they come from the seed-pod, eating their way 

 out ? since in most cases there is a big round hole in the side of the capsule, while 

 the top is closed ; or do they eat their way in to get at the seeds ? I found numbers 

 on one plant growing among a lot of plants which have no indication of the 

 presence of larvae, and in no case upon a plant devoid of seed-pods, yet I know that 

 the well-grown larva eats the leaves. I have not captured any of the moths, though 

 the plants grow near to the house. Probably they are on the wing only at night, 

 and avoid lights. The larvae in confinement are most troublesome in gnawing their 

 way out of any vessel when they want to pupate. The chrysalis state is passed in 

 an earthen cocoon underground. The moths are erratic in emerging, all will seem 

 to have appeared, and then, weeks later, there will be another." 



Myrina ficedula, Trimen. — " One rainy afternoon, I noticed that something 

 had been eating the young juicy tips of an evergreen tree that grows in the garden, 

 close to the veranda ; indeed, I took hold of a caterpillar without knowing it, for it 

 looks quite like a continuation of the twig. It is of ordinary form, yet walks like a 

 slug, and one can hardly see the legs. It feeds in broad daylight, but eats best on 

 a moist, cloudy day. This proves to be the larva of that lovely, long-tailed blue 

 butterfly. The chrysalis is placed exposed on a leaf or a stem. The butterfly loves 

 to fly high up among the shrubs, and will sometimes settle on the balcony rail. It 

 is very fond of the flowers of the plumbago." 



[The " evergreen tree " seems to be a species oi Ficus.'\ 



Junonia cloantha, Cramer. — " I found the larva in a little quarry, on a low- 

 growing plant, which bears a purple flower. Fortunately I sketched it on the same 

 day, for on the morrow it had spun up. It was only in the chrysalis state about 

 three weeks, and such a pretty chrysalis, I could not do it justice. The butterfly 

 comes to fallen fruit." 



[The larva is sufiiciently pretty ! ; somewhat plump and thickest in the middle ; 

 head orange-yellow, with a cross row of black dots, and a pair of short, black, 

 knobbed antenna-like projections ; body primrose-yellow, with an indented broad 

 black band on each segment ; anal plate orange-yellow ; feet, and also the rather 

 short hairs, black. Pupa having a considerable swelling or hump at the back of the 

 thorax, three projecting points in front, having at their tips glossy black dots ; 

 beneath them similar black dots ; general surface delicate yellow-green, with 

 numerous short purple streaks and dashes on the under-side.] 



Junonia Sesamus, Trimen. — "The dark blue and brown butterflies are our 



'winter robins ' — so tame, that it seems a sin to kill them. If these are what you 



mean as only a variation in colour from the bright red-brown ones which come to 



the fruit fJ. OctaviaJ it is very extraordinary ! Their habits are not at all alike ! 



The red ones fly wildly over the veldt, and rarely come near the house ! The blue 



ones shelter in a sluit, if they cannot find a balcony or a lofty room ! " 



H 2 



