284 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



concerned, able to announce this rare occurrence in Natal, 

 and, it may be, the means to throw more light upon the subject 

 as I proceed with these notes. With the assistance of my 

 friend, Mr. Cooper, we examined the bushes again for more 

 material to work upon, and in one sunny corner of the grounds 

 where the bushes were blooming— their beautiful stellar- shaped 

 flowers and fruit attracting numerous visitors — we collected from 

 the inside stems nine old examples of R. guttata of various sizes, 

 each one more or less carrying its parasite : on two large females 

 there were one grab on each side of their bodies, where they 

 were partly hidden by their host's wings, each larva as heavy as 

 herself. In other cases I counted as many as five, all of diffe- 

 rent sizes, attached to the wings and back ; on another small 

 female there were two large larvae, one a little larger than the 

 other, each protected with the white mantle, besides the wings. 

 As may be supposed, the Fulgorid could only with difficulty lift 

 her abdomen to crawl, and quite unable to jump, a habit with 

 most Fulgorida. I could not help pitying these miserable 

 starved insects, for it looked as if here Nature had made some 

 error ; and from what I could see at this stage, the Fulgorid's 

 life was a matter of a short time, contented by crawling to a 

 stem, where it remains till the larva thinks fit to leave it. 



As may be surmised, having located the grub, I was equally 

 anxious to learn more about its pupa, which we agreed could not 

 be far distant ; this we also succeeded in discovering, Mr. Cooper 

 finding the first one. When I had found six or seven, it seemed 

 strange our eyes should have deceived us so long. Overhead, 

 attached to the under surface of a leaf, was a white oval mass of 

 a beautiful fleece-like formation, with little flakes suspended ; 

 this, with its support and the sun shining through, gave the 

 green an opaqueness, with a darker silhouette for a background, 

 which must be seen to be appreciated. I noticed almost all these 

 cocoons were spun to leaves on the top of the trees ; here, I 

 suppose, the pupa would receive more warmth from the sun at 

 this time of year, and, except some were smaller than others, all 

 were prepared in the same way and place ; on the leaves of 

 some I noticed a small black ant (Formica) running about in an 

 inquisitive manner. 



With a survey of this paper, we see, as a summary, the 



