SUMMARY IN ENGLISH. 
The striped skipper caterpillar of the coconut. 
(Hidari Irava MOORE) 
Several times the damage by this caterpillar to coconut trees in the Dutch 
East Indies has been reported; viz from Java, viz. Sumatra and even 
from Bali. In certain cases the damage has been rather important. So it 
was considered necessary to study the life history and parasites of this pest 
which has not been done before. 5 
In case the caterpillars are numerous, the damaged leaves are stripped 
up to the big veins (lidi’s). This damage however is not typical for this 
caterpillar alone since Slug caterpillars do this as well. But it is 
typical that the caterpillars of Hidari connect the leaflets with strong silk 
bands and hide in the leaves spun together in this way. The caterpillars 
are of sociable habits and are nearly always found in company of several 
individuals of their own species. 
The skippers belong to the butterflies; the skippers as well as their 
caterpillars are very characteristic. The Dutch call them „swollen heads” 
because the caterpillars as well as the butterflies are rather big headed. In literature 
the Metroxylon (sagu palm) and Coconut palm are mentioned as foodplants. 
The author did not find the caterpillars on other plants than Coconut and 
a big fan palm, probably Livistona. Feeding experiments showed, that the 
caterpillars like Coconut as well as Arenga leaves, but scarcely touched 
the leaves of Metroxylon in case they could make choice. 
The eggs measure 1!/, mM. in diameter. They are hemispherical, 
butter yellow, vertically grooved. After one day they show an orange red spot 
at the top, after four days this spot has turned dark purple and the general 
colour has turned into a pinky white. After 7 days they showed already a 
hole in the top and one day afterwards the young caterpillars had emerged. 
The egg stage lasts from 8 to 9 days. In captivity no more than 
44 eggs of one female were obtained. It is pretty sure, that the number 
laid under normal conditions is much greater. The newly emerged 
caterpillars are greenish yellow with a brown line along the sides. They 
devour their eggshells after emergence and still keep together. The 
fullgrown caterpillars measure 46 to 53 mM. in length. The head is placed 
nearly horizontally and is black with dirty yellow, variable marks. The 
body is greyish green with a dark longitudinal line. Just behind the head 
a black narrow collar may be seen, divided by a pale cross line. From 
