( xxix ) 



read the following remarks upon the life-history of the species, 

 communicated by the captor : — 



"The eggs are laid by the female on the twigs of a mistletoe 

 that grows upon various trees at Durban, and are brown in 

 colour and nearly round ; the larviie emerge, about twenty-one 

 or twenty-four days afterwards, and feed gregariously, by night 

 only, upon the underside of the thick leaves. In the very young 

 stage they congregate together round the twigs during the 

 day ; they are nearly black in colour, slightly hairy, and with 

 the heads black. After the first moult, which takes place in 

 about five or six days, they are dark brown in colour, slightly 

 hairy, and at night very active indeed, and measure slightly 

 under half-an-inch. They still, however, feed in company upon 

 the underside of the leaves only. (I may mention that the 

 leaves of their food are very thick and hard.) About five 

 days later they cast their skins for the second time, when 

 they are about five-eighths of an inch in length, and vary in 

 colour a good deal, some being nearly black, some dark brown, 

 others light brown, and in some cases nearly grey in colour, 

 and variegated down the back very similar in this respect to 

 our Catacola promissa ; the head is black with a number of 

 small hairs upon it, the legs black and claspers brown, or 

 sometimes grey ; they are slightly humped on the last segment, 

 and the hind claspers are larger than the others ; during the 

 day they congregate upon the branches and trunk of the tree 

 upon which their food grows, lying perfectly still against 

 the bark, always choosing the bark that most resembles their 

 colour, and even although as many as twenty-five to thirty are 

 in a patch, they are very difficult to find. They go up after dark 

 to their food, which they now eat right through, but still feeding 

 in company, seven or eight on every leaf, of which nothing is 

 left except the small thick stem. After the next moult they are 

 about one inch to one and a quarter inches in length, and differ 

 very little in appearance from that of their previous stage except 

 that the second and third segments are much larger than 

 the others, and the hump on the last segment too ; they are now 

 beautifully variegated down the back, and the underside 

 between the claspers is yellow and sometimes white in colour 

 with black spots ; they are most active by night and eat 



