156 Lloyd's natural history. 



The larva is pale green, shaded with darker, and with the 

 head and anterior segments dark brown. It forms a hollow in 

 the middle of the stem of a species of Casa7tn?ia, or she-oak, 

 and feeds on the bark and sappy wood directly above the 

 entrance, eating round the stem, and carefully hiding its 

 depredations by weaving particles of wood and bark, which it 

 gnaws off, in a strong web. It thus forms at the same time a 

 fortification and disguise of considerable bulk and thickness 

 around the stem, under which, in a winding cylindrical passage, 

 the larva constantly keeps its body while at work, alternately 

 gnawing and weaving ; but retires to the chamber in the stem 

 to repose. Across the mouth of this chamber it spins a close 

 web, and enters the pupa state in January, soon after which 

 the concealing fabric, to form which the larva took so much 

 pains, falls away. It remains in this state for twenty-five days, 

 when by a strong vertical motion of its joints and serrated 

 rings, the pupa forces its way through the web, and the moth 

 emerges, usually in February. 



