Larvae and Pupae of South African Rhopalocera, 61 
having as many as twenty-five or even more. The larva 
is very easy to rear, and feeds up very rapidly, and it 
remains only about eight days in pupa; but where the 
difficulty come in, is that the supply of its food-plant 
should meet the demand, as it is a dark-coloured very 
inconspicuous little creeper, most difficult to find, and 
when a piece is discovered it is generally already sustaining 
two or three or more larvae of this same species. In 
colour it is a bright, shiny red-russet, shaded into deep 
yellow at the extremities, the spines are long, furry and 
black. The pupa is dingy-white in ground-colour, the 
wing-case the same, but heavily outlined and veined in 
black, the rows of abdominal spots are deep orange, very 
heavily surrounded with black. 
17. Leptoneura dingana, Trim. 
(Plate X, figs. 17a, 170.) 
I was able to discover the larvae of this butterfly and 
something of their habits owing to a 2 I caught at 
Barberton in the Transvaal having laid three ova on 
November 5, 1908. These hatched out in thirteen days, 
on November 18, and dingana being a Satyride, I thought 
they would probably be grass-feeders, and such they 
proved to be. All three lived and were doing well, show- 
ing no special preference for any particular kind of grass, 
which was as well, as they continued feeding for six 
months, in fact all through the summer, and _ travelled 
with me wherever I went. Early in May they evidently 
prepared to hibernate, as full-grown larvae, but owing I 
suppose to the unnatural conditions of a bed of cotton 
wool to sleep on, instead of the cool earth, they all died 
before the winter was over, so that I, therefore, never saw 
the pupa. The larva during its early moults is a pale, 
creamy yellow, with longitudinal thin, fine black lines, 
and some touches of deeper yellow, the head also is deep 
yellow. In the last skin this caterpillar is brown, much 
varied with deep, dark-brown, and black streaks, the head 
now is reddish brown-madder, covered with short, very 
fine hairs, tail slightly forked. 
1, The Studios, Sherriff Road, 
West Hampstead, N.W., 
June 1910. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES IX, X. 
[See Hxplanation facing the PLATES. ] 
