1140 The Zoologist — March, 1868. 



full of tliem, the moths, if driren away for a time, muster again anil return. This 

 morning I made an attempt to reckon up the nmnhers grouped together on the 

 windows, and I counted more than 80,000. In the tower and below the floor, and 

 hidden behind the skirling, there are probably many millions. An opinion has been 

 published, that these moths came in from the sea. A flight fully a mile in length, 

 very thick and broad, was certainly seen on the evening of the 20th of September, 

 travelling from the direction of the Heads along the North Shore ; and another similar 

 flight was seen at Newcastle, probably both directed by a N.E. wind, which would in 

 the latter case have, perhaps, blown them from the projecting land about Port 

 Stephens, and so they might have crossed the water. The sands of the sea have been 

 known in former years to be bordered by a thick band of dead moths, doubtless blown 

 in from the land, drowned, and washed ashore. I am told that a vessel, yesterday, 

 twenty miles from land, was covered by them. My own observations, specially on the 

 22nd of December, 1851, lead me to believe that if they have migrated from a distance 

 they have come from the west and souih-west, especially as their first appearance this 

 year was with a west wind. And it must be remembered, that previous visitations 

 have probably left eggs enough to account for the present multitudes within less 

 distance than that from Sydney to Mount Kosciuseo." 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited the mollis forwarded by Dr. Bennett to Dr. Gray. They 

 did not appear to differ from the " Bugong moth," Agrotis spina of Guenee. With 

 reference to Dr. Bennett's remark that males ouly had been found, it may be observed 

 that the box forwarded by him contained about an equal number of male and female 

 specimens. Both sexes also have been described, in a paper read before the 

 Entomological Society of New South Wales, by Mr. A. W. Scott, who applies to tho 

 insect the name of Agrotis vaslator. The following is an extract from Mr. Scott's 

 paper: — 



"The caterpillar of this moth is fleshy, little attenuated at each extremity, sub- 

 vermiform in appearance, and of a livid colour, varying much in shade, with the 

 anterior segment furnished with a horny plate. It measures at maturity about two 

 inches, and undergoes its transformation in the ground. The chrysalis is cyliudro- 

 couical, of a shining yellowish brown, and protected by a slight cocoon of a rough 

 irregular ovoid form, composed of agglutinated earth. The caterpillars of several 

 species of Agrotis, such as the one now under consideration, are very destructive on 

 account of their numbers, feeding on the roots and leaves of low herbage, and hiding 

 during the extreme heat of noon under clods of earth, stones, and other convenient 

 places. The number of larva?, in seasons which prove favourable for their development, 

 almost surpasses belief. .... A few years ago, on the Hunter River, I carefully 

 exainiued a paddock of twenty-five acres, under oats for hay, which was much infested 

 by the caterpillars of this species, and found that nearly every stalk had at least oue 

 caterpillar on it; numbers had two, many three. Taking the plants at twenty to the 

 square foot, and each with only one caterpillar, the result would be 21,780,000 of these 

 insects; and supposing that all these lived to become moths, each pair producing by 

 the end of the season a progeny of 80,000, the total produce for the twenty-Gve acres 

 would amount to 871,200,000,000. What, then, calculating under the same condi- 

 tions, would be the number of the caterpillars which were at the time I allude to 

 ravaging whole districts? A long line of figures almost unpronounceable. 



