Zoology. -\ NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Insecrs. 



Plate 40, Figs. 7-15. 



ENTOMETA IGNOBILIS (Walk.). 



The Lictor Case-Moth. 



[Genus ENTOMETA (Walk.). (Sub-kingd. Articulata. Class Insecta. Order Lepidop- 

 tera. Sect. Heterocera. Tribe Bombycites. Earn. Psychidae.) 



Gen. Char. — Male. — Body stout, very pilose. Head moderately prominent. Palpi very 

 stout, pilose, projecting a little beyond the head ; third joint minute, conical. Antennas longer 

 than the thorax, deeply bi-pectinated to the tips. Abdomen extending beyond the hind wings. 

 Legs stout, pilose ; hind tibiae with small apical spurs. Wings pilose, nearly opaque ; anterior 

 pair rather long, narrow towards the rounded tips, straight along the costa ; exterior border 

 very oblique, slightly excavated ; inner angle rounded, obtuse ; hind wings obliquely rounded, 

 without sinus. Female without wings or legs. Australia and Tasmania.] 



Description. — Male. — Brown. Wings smoky-brown, slightly hyaline with a 

 small dark spot at end of disc on upper wings; anterior ones acute, exterior border 

 nearly straight, very oblique. Head, thorax, legs, and abdomen dull ochraceous ; 

 palpi whitish ; tip of tail darker brown. Palpi porrect, not extending beyond the 

 head. Antennas slightly longer than thorax, broadly bipectinated, gradually nar- 

 rowing to tbe apex. Length of body, 9 lines ; expanse from tip to tip of wings, 

 1 inch 4 lines. Pupa dark-brown, slender, with wings, &c 9 marked; length, 10 

 lines ; width, 3 lines. 



Female. — Short, fusiform, thick; cream-colored, except the thoracic segments 

 and head, which are brown ; surface naked, except a slight pilose fringe on hind 

 segments. Length, 11 lines ; diameter, 5 lines. Pupa nearly the same size and 

 shape but dark-brown, with blackish transverse bands; the stigmata on the sides 

 very distinct. 



Case of male formed of a flexible tubular portion covered with small grains of 

 bark, &c, from \ to \ an inch long, and 3 lines wide in front and behind ; the middle 

 portion like a cylindrical bundle, \ an inch in diameter, of straight sticks, each 

 about 1 line in diameter, rounded at the cut ends, each firmly fixed by the whole 

 inner side to the silk lining of the case; the twigs are about 1 inch long, but one or 

 two usually much longer at the posterior end (apparently for the legs of the imago 

 to lay hold of when drawing itself out of the pupa skin). Case of female of about 

 fourteen sticks, 1^ inch long and 8 lines in diameter. 



Reference. — Walker, Char. Undescr. Lepidop. Heteroc, p. 67.* 



The cases of this species are so excessively abundant that 

 scarcely a tree in the colony can be found without many of them 

 hanging from it. They chiefly frequent the Eucalypti or so-called 



* I may mention that the Entometa despecta described in the above work has really no 

 relation to this genus. The larva? have no case, and in size and shape resemble those of the 

 English " Drinker-moth," O. potatoria, with two filaments from the third segment and a conical 

 projection like that of a Hawk-moth from the penultimate segment ; and the females are large, 

 with well-developed legs and wings, much larger than those of the male ; the cocoons are of 

 white silk, with leaves or grass on the outside. 



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