366 Gervase F. Mathew's Ufe-historjj of three 



shook it over a clear [)iece of ground, which I had 

 previously prepared for the purpose, as I thought it very 

 possible that the larvae might he uight-feeders, con- 

 cealing themselves among the roots during the day. 

 At the very first shake, to my infinite delight, out 

 dropped an unmistakable Satyrid larva, which, of course, 

 could be no other than that of X Sesara, for the 

 only other Satyrid occurring near Suva is the ubiquitous 

 Melamtia Leda, whose larva I was very well acquainted 

 with. This larva appeared to be about full-grown, and, 

 having found it so easily, I thought there would not be 

 much difficulty in getting a plentiful supply of them ; 

 but a couple of hours' hard work under a broiling sun 

 only produced two more of them, one the same size as 

 the first, and the other about half-grown. A few days 

 after I found three more small larvae near the same 

 place. One or two pieces of the food-plant dug up by 

 the roots, with earth attached, and placed in a small 

 wide-mouthed bottle, kept alive and fresh and continued 

 to throw up young shoots in my cabin for several weeks ; 

 and upon these the half-dozen larvae were successfully 

 reared, and produced butterfiies at Sydney during 

 September. 



The larvffi in confinement were rather sluggish in 

 their habits, and when not feeding rested upon a dead 

 or withered blade of grass, well down towards the roots, 

 and their colour so harmonised with the dried stems 

 that they were difficult to see. When annoyed they 

 generally curled themselves into a ring and fell to the 

 ground, though sometimes they remained on the blade 

 of grass and raised their anterior segments Sphinx-like. 



The full-grown larva is from 18 mm. to 20 mm. long, 

 cylindrical, tapering towards each extremity, and with 

 the anal segment produced into two points ; head 

 smooth, subcordate, slightly porrected, and manifestly 

 larger than the 2nd segment ; whole colour a light 

 pinkish brown, or pinkish putty-colour; dorsal stripe 

 darker and bordered on each side by a line of a still 

 deeper shade ; subdorsal line darker than the general 

 ground colour, and bordered below by another line of a 

 paler hue, and below this there are several longitudinal 

 lines ; just above the spiracles there is a pale waved 

 line, and below them a conspicuous pale stripe ; spiracles 

 very small and black ; ventral surface slightly darker 

 than the upper ; head same colour as the body, with a 



