108 HRPIALUS LIGNIVORUS. 



Not only does this moth fully answer to the 

 observation of Lewin, that it is the most beautiful 

 species we have seen of that tribe of moths some- 

 times known in England by the name of Swifts, 

 but its transformations are equally unlike those of 

 the rest of the genus, having more resemblance to 

 those of Cossus or Zeuzera. The larva forms a 

 lodgement or chamber in the centre of a stem of a 

 species of Casaurina or the she-oak of the colony, 

 and feeding on the bark and sappy wood directly 

 above the entrance, eating round the stem, and care- 

 fully hiding its dilapidations by weaving fragments 

 of wood and bark which it gnaws off, in a strong 

 web ; forming at once a fortification and disguise of 

 considerable bulk and thickness around the stem, 

 under which, in a winding cylindric passage, the 

 larva constantly keeps its body while at work, 

 alternately gnawing and weaving; but retires to 

 the chamber in the stem to repose. Across the 

 mouth of this chamber it spins a close web, and 

 changes to a pupa in January, soon after which the 

 concealing fabric, to form which the larva took so 

 much pains, falls away. It remains in the pupa 

 state about twenty-five days, when, by a strong 

 vertical motion of its joints and serrated rings, the 

 pupa forces the web, and the moth is produced 

 generally in February. The moth is shown at rest 

 in the upper part of the plate, and the larva in a 

 section of its chamber, and its disguise, as men- 

 tioned above, in other parts of the plate. 



