Occasional Notes. 147 



been thus deceptive to many. The external chara6lers, 

 less the sub-nasal pits, the supra-ocular plates, and the 

 terminal spine, are closely similar to the labarria, and 

 even the dentition is calculated to mislead one, since the 

 anterior maxillaries are considerably enlarged and re- 

 curved. In faft, unless one were so familiar with the 

 morphological distinflions of the Boas and the Crotaline 

 Vipers as to be able to stand the test of a viva voce of an 

 anatomist, by whom he would be required not only to 

 relate, but to point out on specimens, in situ, the exa6t 

 distin6lions, there would be every likelihood of these 

 two species being confounded. 



Sociable Caterpillars. — Quite recently, through the 

 kindness of Mr. Waby of the Botanic Gardens, who 

 forwarded me a specimen, I had the opportunity of 

 examining a compound cocoon with a set of sociable 

 caterpillars, referable to the Noftua or Owlet 

 moth, Anomis grandipundata, of whose occurrence 

 in the colony there seems to be no previously pub- 

 lished record. The extremely interesting and diverse 

 methods and contrivances by which different species 

 of inse6ls secure themselves during the transition from 

 the grub to the chrysalis and imago, are illustrated 

 by a very large series of examples among the more 

 commonly occurring species ; but the case here referred 

 to may be considered, perhaps, the most striking and 

 peculiar. Several dozen caterpillars, of about i^ inch 

 in length and \ inch in thickness, covered with a short 

 reddish-brown fluffy hair, make for themselves a delicate- 

 looking, but strong, silky case of variable shape, attached 

 to small branches or twigs at its broader basal end, and 



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