FHOBETRUM. 2 I 7 



in colouring the sexes are very much alike. The fore-wings 

 are ferruginous, with a silvery margin, and with numerous trans- 

 verse lines formed of little tufts of a chestnut colour, change- 

 able in different lights. The hind-wings are dull whitish, the 

 thorax and abdomen brown and bushy. 



The larva is very remarkable, broad, thick, and massive, 

 with four reddish protuberances on the anterior part of the 

 body and four behind. These knobs it is able to open at 

 will and dart out eight rays or bunches of stings of a yellow 

 colour. The colour of the body is grey, with numerous black 

 spots and streaks, the back being marked with a large yellow 

 spot marked with several black crescents. There are also two 

 reddish tufts on the head and two similar ones at the hinder 

 extremity. The sides have a row of white spines directed 

 backwards. It feeds on the leaves of the stringy bark tree, a 

 species of Eucalyptus, and passes into the pupa-state in the 

 beginning of February, fastening itself to the stem of a leaf, 

 and spinning a dense oval brown cocoon. The Moth emerges 

 in about three weeks. 



The wound inflicted by the little fascicles of stings is 

 described by Lewin as very painful and venomous, and it 

 darts them forth whenever it is alarmed by the motion of 

 anything approaching. They must prove a very powerful 

 defence against birds and many other enemies. 



GENUS PHOBETRUM. 



Phobetron, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 398 (1827 ?) 

 Ecnomtdea, Westwood, in Jardine's Nat. Libr. Exot. Moths, 



p. 183 (1841). 

 Phobetrum, Packard, Proc. Ent. Soc. Philad. iii. p. 340 



(1864). 

 In its general characters this genus agrees with Eucka (vide 



