] 22 CRYPTOPHASA. 



live in the larva state ; reflecting on the singularity 

 of which, we are struck at the wonderful means of 

 self-preservation which the great Author of Nature 

 has bestowed on different members of the animal 

 creation, among which we know insects of every 

 country abound with examples. The great enemy 

 against which these larvae take such precaution, is 

 the mantis or walking-leaf, which abound in New 

 South Wales, devouring multitudes of larvae in the 

 day-time. The natives also seek these wood-boring 

 caterpillars as a delicious article of food, climbing 

 high trees and searching for them with great labour. 

 In addition to the preceding species of Cryp- 

 tophasa, Mr. Lewin has also described one of the 

 Noctuidae forming a section with the same name, 

 in which the palpi are similar in form to those of 

 the Bombycideous section, but the antennae are 

 thread-shaped in both sexes, and the tongue short 

 and spiral, but sometimes scarcely discernible. The 

 species is named C. strigata, and has light wain- 

 scot-coloured wings, the anterior with a brown 

 stripe from the shoulder to the end, and the pos- 

 terior with a broad silvery fringe, the whole insect 

 being silvery, especially near the stripe. The larva 

 of this species is provident and wood-boring, enter- 

 ing the sappy branches or slender stems of the 

 Banksia serrata, where it forms a cell, having its 

 entrance barricaded with a fabric of interwoven 

 web and excrement; under which the larva con- 

 veys its food by nightly perambulations, that is, 

 so much of a leaf of the above tree as it can con- 



