18 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



generally adjacent culm, repeating these gymnastic evolutions ad 

 libitum. It seems that these are the specimens that most 

 collectors get and our writers have described. The wings of 

 these are ample, the insect active, but easily netted. The 

 ground-colour varies from deep blood-red, through a somewhat 

 slaty colour to grey, but the specimens are all males. At the 

 time that the males are flying about, if the lantern be directed to 

 the ground, not to the marram clumps so frequented by the 

 males, a peculiar washed-out looking insect will be observed 

 crawling about, its colour of a pale, yellowish or orange-grey, 

 with faint traces of a baud across the centre of the anterior 

 wings ; these wings very narrow and pointed, and apparently 

 scarcely capable of flight. The hind wings also pale, of the 

 same colour as the anterior wings, and also very narrow. The 

 most remarkable fact about this insect is the comparatively 

 exceedingly large abdomen, with its long protruding ovipositor. 

 When freshly emerged, and the ovarium distended with eggs, the 

 insect, as it crawls over the ground, drags its abdomen after it, 

 and does not seem to have sufiicient muscular power either to 

 raise or depress it, its weight being too great. In this condition 

 they never appear to fly. I have seen a good many specimens, 

 but never remember having seen one fly, although when the eggs 

 are laid, or partly so, the female may probably have sufficient 

 power to be able to do so. I cannot find in the books I have 

 that the female has ever been described. All our writers 

 describe the male, but not the female. — J. W. Tutt ; Rayleigh 

 Villa, Westcombe Park, S.E., October 17, 1887. 



Giant Lepidopterous Larvae in Australia. — In connection 

 with the giant larva figured in the ' Entomologist ' (Entom. xix. 

 97), it may interest some of your readers to know that larvae of 

 even larger proportions are found in New South Wales. The 

 larva of Chalepteryx collesi, a large moth which has been 

 unusually abundant during the past summer in the vicinity 

 of Sydney, often attains the length of seven inches and is robust 

 in proportion. This moth feeds on various Eucalypti, and is of 

 a rich satiny brown colour ; each segment, except the first, is 

 furnished with eight yellow verrucose spots, which emit long brown 

 bristles ; the anal extremity, a yellow band on the first segment, 

 and two additional verrucose spots on the second and third 

 segments also give rise to bristles. The cocoon, as well as the 



