13 



Fam. BOMBYX. Sec. CRYPTOPHASA. 



Cryptophasa Rubescens. PI. 12. 



SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



Bombyx Cryptophasa with yellowish clay-coloured anterior wings, the male having a lighter 

 marking part down the anterior margin, an ablong mark of the same near the shoulder envi- 

 roned with red: anterior wings of the female pale, and tinctured with rose colour: posterior 

 wings orange-yellow : abdomen with a square mark of red at the base : the whole insect smooth 

 and glossy. 



This is a noctivagant, and provident insect in the larva state; its habits and 

 manners differ little from the preceding species: our specimen had formed a 

 lodgment in the stem of the Mimosa Ensifolia, as shewn in the plate, having its' 

 entrance secured by a covering fabric of excrement, which it webbed down 

 close when within, but left unfastened the leaves it had brought for food, in 

 its nightly excursions. The leaves of this tree are lanceolate, and of such a 

 length, as to preclude the possibility of being taken wholly within, the greater 

 part of the leaf therefore is left out, and the larva hawls them in gradually as 

 he consumes them: being full fed it changes to a pupa within this dwelling- 

 place. Remains in this state thirty-eight days, and is on the wing at the end 

 of February, when it inhabits banks of rivers, ponds, and deep gulleys or 

 abrupt valleys; in which situations those trees are also found. The larva 

 cutting off a leaf is shown at 1; the pupa in the wood at 2; the female moth 

 at 4; and the male at 3. 



Obs. On the stem of the tree figured in the plate is seen a round hole, and a scar below it, 

 the work of some predecessor of this wood-boring moth. It is thus that trees have their trunks 

 and timber perforated and exposed to bleedings and decay, by a tribe of seemingly insignificant 

 insects, in New South Wales. 



