16 ATJSTRALIAN LEPIDOPTEEA 



"Bodv stout, pUose. Proboscis very short. Palpi very sliort, not extending so far as tlie kead ; 3rd joint very smaE. 

 Antenna; pectinated to tlie tips, longer than thorax. Abdomen extending beyond the hind wings. Legs stout, pilose; bind 

 tibia; AYitli 2 minute apical spurs. AVings rather long. Pore wings almost straight along the costa, rounded at the tips, very 

 oblique along the exterior border; interior angle much rounded; discal areolct intersected by a secondary forked vein ; three 

 inferior veins ; 2nd about 4 times fui-tlicr from the third than from the tii-st." "VValkor, Cat. Brit. Mus. Lep. Ilet., p. 982. 



"The Caterpillars are thick, smooth, fleshy, varied in their colours, with the extremity of the body attenuated, and ter- 

 minated by two long filaments (whence the generic name derived from the Greek) instead of tlie ordinary anal prologs, and wliich 

 enclose two slender very long fleshy threads, which the insect has the power of protruding or cxserting at will." A\estwood, 

 Brit. Moths, Vol. I., p. 75. 



" Cocoon remarkable for its strength and solidity, being composed of particles of wood united by a very adhesive kind 

 of gum." Duncan, Brit, lloths, p. 192. 



SPECIES 1.— CERtTEA AT7STEALIS.— (Plate V.) 



This fine species of tlie Puss Moth, although abundant mtli us in some seasons, must yet be considered rare, as we do 

 not remember having seen a single specimen, with the exception of those we have ourselves presented, in any of the Sydney 

 collections ; but there can be no doubt, when their liabits are better imderstood, that they will be numerously found in many 

 other places beyond a locality so circumscribed as tliis Island. All the caterpillars of this genus wlien at rest assume a 

 formidable appearance, holding their large and massive heads erect and recurving their tails, furnished with a long bifurcate 

 horny appendage, as if in readiness to inflict a wound. To this defiant attitude the Larva owes its unenviable reputation in some 

 of tlie rural districts of England, where it has been described as " a monster with a head like a lion, jaws like a shark, a born 

 like a unicorn, and two tremendous stings in its tail;" but after aU it is very innocent and innocuous, neither possessing the 

 stinging powers of the Doratiophora, nor the irritating properties of the Chclepteryx, and is withal a very handsome caterpillar, 

 with a robust form and ornamental exterior. 



Our species is fully 3 inches in length ; the head is brown, and placed under a dark brown horny triangular-shaped shield, 

 the base of which proceeds from the anterior portion of the first segment, rising to a point over tlie middle of the third ; a 

 similarly coloured large saddle-shaped mark along the back and part of the sides, both of these edged with light red, and finely 

 striated witli lavender, the latter also with short light coloured longitudinal linos along the sides ; the remainder of the caterpillar is a 

 bright emerald green, irregularly spotted with brown. The bifurcate filaments proceeding from the attenuated extremity of the 

 body, which is destitute of caudal feet, are long, minutely spinose and brown, and contain retractile rose-coloured tentaoula. 

 When young, there are two horny projecting points, one on each side of the base of the shield, but which disappear in the last 

 moult. At rest, the caterpillar supports itself by the abdominal feet, recurving both its extremities, with the thoracic segments 

 contracted, and forcing the triangular shield into a conspicuous prominence above. 



Preparatory to its change to the pupa state, it hollows out a cavity in the bark and adjoining wood, and by agglutinating 

 then- comminuted particles forms a strong outward covering of a depressed oval form, and so exactly resembling the bark tliat the 

 structure might be easily mistaken for a sliglit woody excresoenee. At the liead of this cocoon is a circular space of much 

 weaker material left purposely for the easier escape of the imago. 



The Chrysalis (fig. 1) is dark brown, bluff towards the head, and rather more than 1 inch in length. 



The perfect insects take wing in February and September ; in the former case they remain about a month in tlic cocoon, in 

 the latter, two or three, according to the severity of the -srintcr. The female in expansion of wing is 3^ inches, the male an inch smaller. 



The Antenna; ...(fig. 2, male) are strongly bipeotinated in both sexes. 



Th& Labial palpi (fig. 3 and 4) are very small, basal rather longer than 2nd joint, terminal minute. 



Tlio Legs, densely pilose, with 2 very minute apical spurs on the tibia; of posterior legs, (fig, 5). 



Wings deflexed at rest. 



The ground colour of tlio upper surface of the superior wing of the female is white, with a transverse irregular bar near 

 the base, of briglit skyblue edged by black ; spots and lunules of black are dispersed rather numerously over the other parts and 

 along the exterior margin. The under wing dusky, with two indistinct darker bands, and margined with a row of wliite spots. 

 The thorax white, containing 10 rich blue spots. The abdomen robust, pilose, and black, with a somewhat heart-shaped white 

 spot near the extremity, which bears two semicircular tufts, also white. 



The under side, devoid of tlie blue bars, exhibits much more black ; the spots and lunules on the upper surface of the 

 anterior wing extending into rather broad irregular transverse bands, while the two obscure bands of the inferior wings become 

 black and distinct. 



The male is similar in colouring, but fainter, especially in the under T\ings, which are almost white. 



