ccxii New Australian Bombyx. 



Female. — Palpi small, short, clothed with pale scales, their apices bent down- 

 wards : maxillae not observed, probably wanting ; scales of the face brown, of the 

 epicraniura bright ferruginous ; at the base of each antenna is a little erect tuft 

 of brown scales ; the apices of these tufts are connivent, approaching each other 

 above the epicraniuui ; the antennae are moderately long, quite simple, and pale 

 brown : scales on thorax, immediately behind the head, long, loose, and bright 

 ferruginous, the rest brown ; scales on dorsal segments of abdomen short, closely 

 appressed, reddish brown, on the sides and beneath long, woolly, and dark brown, 

 forming a large and dense apical mass. Above, anterior wings reddish brown, the 

 oblique exterior margin with a broad pale band ; the discoidal dark brown portion 

 of the wing is somewhat more deeply coloured at the base, along the costa, and 

 at the upper inner margin of the pale band : the wing is marked throughout with 

 slightly undulated oblique parallel lines, which seem rather to result from an un- 

 dulating character in the membrane of the wing than from diversity of colour : 

 posterior wings uniform concolorous brown, the cilia alone pale. Beneath brown ; 

 the tips of the anterior wings, an obscure stigma and the cilia paler. 



This moth is nearly allied to the Bombyx vulnerans of Lewin's ' Lepidoptera 

 of New South Wales,' pi. 4, — Doratifera vulnerans of Westwood, described at 

 p. 181 of Duncan's ' Exotic Moths,' which forms No. 7 of ' The Naturalist's 

 Library.' The larva of that species is "of very singular aspect, broad, thick and 

 massive, with four reddish protuberances on the anterior part of the body and 

 four behind. These knobs it has the power of opening at pleasure, and darting 

 out eight rays or bunches of stings of a yellow colour : * * * the wound 

 inflicted by these little fascicles of stings is described by Lewin as very painful 

 and venomous, and it darts them forth whenever it is alarmed by the motion of 

 anything approaching." The cocoon of B. Oxleyi is remarkably small for the 

 size of the moth, being scarcely larger than a good- sized pea . it is of an oval 

 shape, extremely compact, and not to be broken without a sharp blow ; it is com- 

 posed of a glutinous substance secreted by the larva, and mingled with highly 

 comminuted particles of the rind of a twig of some species of Eucalyptus, to the 

 denuded wood of which it is firmly attached, the caterpillar evidently laying bare 

 a portion of the twig with its mandibles and employing the fragments in the fabrica- 

 tion of its cocoon, the smaller end of which is provided with an operculum or lid, 

 which separates only on the imago arriving at maturity, and leaves a smooth- 

 margined, perfectly circular aperture, through which the moth escapes. I am 

 indebted to Mr. Oxley for the opportunity of describing both the moth and the 

 cocoon, and have much pleasure in dedicatmg the species to that zealous entomo- 

 logist. I do not find any characters of the genus Doratifera. 



Edward Newman. 



