TEANSFOEMATIONS OF SOME SOUTH-AFEICAN LEPIDOPTEEA. 181 



line of tubercles each bearing a tuft of fairly long whitish hairs, and a tuft of similar 

 hairs at the intersection of the somites ; legs and claspers pale pinkish ; spiracles dark 

 brown. 



Some specimens are much more heavily marked than others. 



Feeds on "Natal mahogany," Trichilia dregeana (Harv. & Sond.), Natural Order 

 Meliacese. 



The larvae of this species are " social " in their habits, and feed in companies or 

 societies of a hundred or so on one plant ; they feed at night and sit in a cluster in 

 hollows on the trunk of the food-plant during the daytime, when they resemble a stain 

 on the bark. 



The pupce, which are purplish brown with pale bistre markings on the somites, are 

 enclosed in social cocoons spun amongst leaves on the surface of the ground with the 

 hairs of the larvse. 



The imago is a common moth in Durban, where it has been reared by Mr. J. F. 

 Quekett, who has kindly given me the above information about its habits. 



Trabala pallida, n. sp. (Plate VIII. figs. 1, female; 2, larva, early stage ; 2 a, head 

 of larva, front view ; 3, larva, final stage ; 4, cocoon.) 



Male and female. Head, thorax, and abdomen pale ochraceous ; a yellow band on 

 collar ; antennas pale yellow, pectinated in both sexes : fore wing pale ochraceous ; a 

 yellow spot at end of cell ; a narrow, yellow, antemedial band, becoming obsolete at 

 vein 1 ; an oblique, postmedial, narrow band olivaceous, reaching the inner margin, 

 and continued across the disc of the hind wing : hind wing pale ochraceous, becoming 

 almost white inwardly ; a yellow spot at end of cell ; a faint indication subcostally of a 

 lunular submarginal line, becoming obsolescent on first median interspace ; cilia pale 

 ochraceous. Underside : fore wing as on upperside ; hind wing with a black spot at 

 end of cell, and the costa thickly clothed with coarse, longish, black hairs. 



Larva (early stage). Head pale yellow, with four black spots, one at the apex, one 

 just above the mandibles, and one on each eye: body, first somite concolorous with 

 head, and bearing three black tubercles surmounted by tufts of blackish hairs, one 

 dorsally and two laterally ; remainder of body pale ochraceous, covered by numerous 

 minute black spots ; a dorsal, subdorsal, and lateral line of small black tubercles, each 

 bearing a few longish yellow hairs ; a number of shorter yellow hairs scattered over the 

 body ; three or four blackish spots subdorsally at the intersection of the somites, where 

 there are some narrow reddish bands on the somites ; legs black ; claspers ochraceous ; 

 spiracles black. 



The final stage is very different from the early larval stage ; the head remains the 

 same, but the body is deep velvety black, with dorsal, subdorsal, and lateral small black 

 tubercles, each bearing some yellowish-white hairs and a few black hairs ; each somite 



vol. xvu. — part n. No. 3. — August, 1903. 2 b 



