33 



particularly Coconut Palm. They are said to feed on Banana 

 also; but I have never .seen them on Banana. It is a serious pest 

 on the Coconut Palm, causing the leaves to have a very ragged, 

 unsightly appearance. 



Life History 



The eggs are laid in regular rows in a narrow mass by the side 

 of a ril) of the leaf or leaflet. They are much flattened, roundish, 

 and overlap similarly to shingles. I have counted as many as 84 

 in one cluster, but usually a less number, ahout ;>0-50. The 

 young larvae feed gregariously on the under side of leaf, protected 

 by a thin web of silk. At first they eat the substance of the leaf, 

 and leave the opposite epidermis. They soon scatter more or 

 less, and make hiding places by fastening together the lower edges 

 of coconut leaflets, often several caterpillars in the same place. 

 As they become a little larger, they eat the whole substance, eat- 

 ing from the edge, and not leaving the epidermis. As they get 

 the leaflet mostly eaten, they migrate to other leaflets, and 

 where they are numerous they soon mutilate every leaflet of the 

 leaf. The caterpillars are full-grown in about 4 weeks from hatch- 

 ing. They molt five times at intervals of 4 to 5 days, and a 

 little longer period ])etween 5th molt and time of pupation. 



Freshly hatched caterpillars are whitish, about 2 mm. long; 

 head very pale testaceous, with faint blackish dot at cluster of 

 ocelli, and a fainter one in middle of front of each lolie. In 

 addition to these markings, after the first molt, there is a black 

 dot in each lateral lobe of the cervical shield ; and tubercles ii of 

 segments 3 and 4 have a black spot at lower margin. 



After the second molt, in addition to above markings, tlie head 

 has the markings of the full-grown caterpillar, but they are faint; 

 and tubercles iii of segments 11 and 12 are black-margined. All 

 of these markings become more conspicuous after third and fourth 

 molts. After the fourth molt the anterior and lateral margins of 

 the cervical shield are somewhat blackened. 



Full-grown caterpillar.— (Plate IV, figs. 4, 5). Length 32-35 

 mm.; dull greenish, with two dorsal whitish lines, also whitish 

 on line of spiracles. Head testaceous, a black spot including 

 ocelli, above this a row of three irregular spots extending to 

 vertex, often connected; around black spot in middle of eacli 

 half of face, these with one of the spots on each side oi head 



