Rhopalocera from the Australian region. 145 
V-shaped paler mark; legs and prolegs black ; ventral 
area pale greenish yellow. 
When full-fed the larva attaches itself to a pad of silk 
on the under side of a leaf, or stem of its food-plant, 
and hanging, head downwards, changes to a con- 
spicuous and rather elongated black and white chrysalis, 
- with a subdorsal and spiracular series of orange spots. 
I have also taken this species at Brisbane, Fiji, New 
Hebrides, Thursday Island, and New Guinea. 
Pyrameis Itea, Fabr., (Pl. VI., fig. 10). 
This species was not uncommon in the neighbourhood 
of Sydney, but it was not abundant, for its food-plant, 
Urtica incisa, was very scarce. Indeed I only remember 
having seen one small plant growing under a wall 
in one of the suburbs, and this had several larvee upon it. 
The nettles probably occurred in gardens, or waste 
places, not generally accessible to the public, or the 
larve may perhaps feed on something else as well. The 
butterfly was occasionally to be seen in the very heart of 
the city. It is fond of alighting upon walls, or upon 
trunks of trees, and invariably settles with its head 
downwards. It is a very rapid flier. The larve were 
very abundant at Hobart, Tasmania, in February, 1883, 
and I took a plentiful supply from a bed of nettles in a 
garden in the town, and bred a fine series of the perfect 
insect. J also met with the larve at Blackheath, on the 
Blue Mountains, in February, 1885, and IJ have received 
bred specimens from Norfolk Island, where it appears to 
be common. The eggs are laid singly, upon the ter- 
minal shoots of nettles (Urtica incisa), and although the 
larve are not, strictly speaking, gregarious, yet the 
same female appears to deposit a number of eggs upon 
the same plant. Directly the larve are hatched they 
proceed to spin the edge of a leaf together, and form a 
little tent in which to dwell, issuing forth from time to 
time to feed. They live in tents the whole course of 
their existence, constructing larger ones as they increase 
in size. But it sometimes happens that there are so 
many larve upon a single plant that they eat each other 
out of house and home, and may then be seen feeding 
quite exposed. When full grown they attach themselves 
by the anal hooks to a spray of their food-plant, or 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1888.—PaRT I. (MARCH.) L 
