,30 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I was led to notice a yellow spider of the same group, in con- 

 sequence of seeing that two of a number of butterflies on the 

 flowers of Senecio pubigera did not on my approach fly off with 

 their companions. Each of these unfortunates turned out to be 

 in the clutches of a spider, and, when I released them, I observed 

 their captors very narrowly, and found that the latter's close 

 resemblance to the Senecio flowers was not one of colour alone, 

 but due also to attitude. This spider, holding on to the flower- 

 stalk by the two hinder pairs of legs, extended the two long 

 front pairs upward and laterally. In this position, it was scarcely 

 possible to believe that it was not a flower seen in profile, the 

 rounded abdomen representing the central mass of florets, and 

 the extended legs the ray-florets ; while, to complete the illusion, 

 the femora of the front pair of legs, appressed to the thorax, 

 have each a longitudinal red stripe which represents the ferru- 

 ginous stripe on the sepals of the flower. 



On another occasion I witnessed the actual capture of a 

 small blue butterfly (Lycoenesthes) by a white spider of the same 

 genus. The butterfly was engaged in honey-sucking on a white 

 flower-head of Lantana, and explored each individual flower with 

 its proboscis. While I was watching it, the butterfly touched 

 and partly walked over what looked like a slightly faded or 

 crumpled flower about the middle of the cluster. This turned 

 out to be a spider, which instantly seized the butterfly, throwing 

 forward its front legs somewhat after the fashion of a Mantis. 

 In this spider the efl'ect of the little depressions on the limb 

 of the corolla was given by some depressed lines on the back of 

 its smooth white abdomen.* 



LIFE-HISTORY OF CHARAGIA VIRESCENS. 

 By George Vernon Hudson. 



Among the very few Bombycina inhabiting New Zealand, the 

 family Hepialidge occupy by far the most prominent position, 

 comprising many insects of very large size and conspicuous 

 appearance ; of these perhaps Charagia virescens is one of the 



* Part of an address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the South African 

 Philosophical Society, 



