94 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



LIFE-HISTORY OF XENICA HOBARTIA, Westw. 



This (as mentioned in "Victorian Butterflies") is one of the 

 rarest of our Nymphalid?e. Prior to November, 1890, it was known 

 to be present in but two Victorian collections, those of Mr. Wm. 

 Kershaw and the National Museum, having been taken by the 

 Messrs. Kershaw in 1886. On the 4th of that month (Nov. '90) 

 Mr. F. P. Spry secured two specimens at Fern Tree Gully, and 

 on the same day the writer captured three more upon the slopes 

 of Mt. Riddell, Healesville. 



So far all the specimens taken had been females — the male was 

 unknown. A few weeks later, during the excursion of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club to the Yarra Falls, the writer took a number of 

 both sexes. The first male was captured on 23rd November (see 

 Vict. Nat., vol. vii., Nos. 11-12) at a spot near the Wood's 

 Point road, about 22 miles beyond Marysville. 



Last November (1894) Mr. Edmund Jarvis, of Macclesfield 

 (Dandenong Ranges), was successful in breeding this species from 

 the egg, and has handed me the following details for publication 

 in the Naturalist : — 



Transformations of Xenica Hobartia. 



Ova. — The eggs of X. Hobartia are laid upon the stems and 

 blades of the common " wire-grass," and are shining green in 

 colour, exactly matching the shade of the food plant. The 

 female insect lays from 20 to 30 eggs, which are usually placed 

 from about j^ to 3^ of an inch apart, but sometimes from i to 6 

 may be found laid close together. About 5 or 6 eggs are usually 

 deposited on a grass blade, and, as far as I have observed, they 

 seem in most cases to be placed near the top of the food plant 

 and on the under surface of the blades. On this latter point, 

 however, the insect does not appear to be particular. 



In shape the eggs are slightly elongated, one end is broader 

 than the other, and both ends are somewhat depressed. They 

 are fastened to the grass blades at their larger ends. When just 

 deposited they are beautiful objects, their glassy surfaces causing 

 them to glisten in the sunlight like tiny emeralds. 



The female lays readily in captivity, requiring only sunlight and 

 the presence of the food plant. Some specimens which I caught 

 this spring (1895) and kept in confinement laid several eggs on 

 the glass sides of their breeding cage and on the muslin which 

 covered the top ; a few eggs were also deposited on the earth 

 near the stem of the food plant. The two females from which I 

 bred in 1894 both laid at midday — one on the 8th, and the other 

 on the 14th of November. 



Larvce. — The larvae emerge in about a fortnight, the eggs laid 

 on 8th November producing the larvae on the 23rd of the same 

 month ; these, when just out of the shell, measured a line in 



