INSECT ODDITIES. . 257 
It thus comes about that, on arriving at its adult state, this caterpillar carries with 
it an accumulation of five or six of its discarded head-masks; the bizarre appear- 
ance thus presented is grotesquely suggestive of the old drawings of the Jew pedlar, 
with his stock-in-trade pile of battered hats. The most characteristic illustration 
of the singular aspect of this much be-hatted caterpillar is afforded by Fig. 22, 
where it is drawn as seen eating its way through a _ leaf. On_ preparing 
for the chrysalis stage and the renouncement of the pomps and vanities of its 
hitherto earth-bound vegetative existence, the caterpillar weaves an ovate silken 
cocoon, on the outer wall of which, as shown in Fig. 23, it jauntily plants its 
ultimately discarded hat pile. In the cocoon here figured, the fabricator, being of an 
evidently esthetic turn of mind, has gnawed off and interwoven with its substance 
fragments of the coloured lining of the box in which it was confined. 
The somewhat silhouette-patterned border illustration reproduced on the first 
page of this Chapter, while introduced primarily for decorative purposes, claims brief 
explanation. It represents the twig-attached pup or chrysalides and newly-emerged 
imagos of one of the many butterflies belonging to the Pieride family common to 
Australia. The particular species is apparently identical with, or near to, Belenois 
Clytie, and notable for its gregarious habits. The three chrysalis-covered sprays 
here photographically reproduced from life, represent but a very small fraction of the 
mass from which they were originally gathered in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 
Availing ourselves of the licence sanctioned by the Entomological Society, which 
admits Spiders provisionally and by courtesy to the rank of Insects, the introduction 
of some notable “oddities” is permitted. Figs: 5 to 15, in Chromo-Plate IX., 
previously quoted, portrays a few of these spider types, remarkable either for their 
individual form or colour, or for the singularity of their architectural products. 
Some of these can, indeed, claim distinction on both counts. Fig. 5 presents, 
in its external contour, but little to distinguish it from the ordinary garden spiders 
of the genus Epeira, but, at the same time, may be described as being of a some- 
what flattened, obovate shape. Colour, however, here comes in, and plays a part 
that, in conjunction with its environments, invests this Arachnid with unique interest. 
The ground tint of this spider, as shown in the illustration, is a delicate lilac, with 
individually variable shadings. Superimposed on this, near the centre of the body, 
are two smooth, slightly elevated, pale yellow, circular, eye-like spots. 
Taken in conjunction with the flattened obovate body, the entire organism, 
with the relatively small cephalothorax and limbs turned in an opposite direction, 
KK 
