176 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



time of the year. As we lay on the grass, talking, and lazily smok- 

 ing, beneath the somewhat scanty shade of a large blue gum, an 



" Animated Stick " (Phasma sp. ?), dropped upon one of us and 



caused considerable amusement. The rapidity with which these un- 

 gainly looking insects move is indeed marvellous, and one can get no 

 proper idea of their real appearance from the dried specimens seen in 

 museums and cabinets. 



Flying round the sweet white blossoms of the tea- tree scrubs were 

 large numbers Agavista glycina, a pretty day-flying species of the 

 Tiger moth, of a deep black color with yellow markings. In the 

 larval state they are very destructive to grape vines, being fond of 

 eating the young shoots and stems, thereby causing the destruction 

 of the fruit. The larva, though different in shape and marking, much 

 resembles C. verbasci, with the addition of a pink blotch at the anal 

 extremity, they only have a few scattered hairs upon them, looking 

 more like a noctua larva, but the moth is a true Bombyx. 



Flying among the X. achanta were a few of an allied species, 

 X. Klugii, which is almost identical above but very different on the 

 underside; while a rather dull looking " Blue" (L. alsulus) was fairly 

 abundant, flitting over the long grass, from which started at every 

 moment large numbers of Crambida, some of them very pretty, being 

 striped with silver, and somewhat similar to C. Warringtonellus ; there 

 are a large number of this family here. 



Feeding on the wattle, which is to insect life here what the oak is 

 in England, I found some Bombyx larvae somewhat resembling A . caja* 

 These spun up very shortly afterwards, forming an oval cocoon, 

 thickly covered with short hairs, which have the most acute urticat- 

 ing properties that I have yet observed, for after handling these 

 cocoons it took me about an hour to extricate the hairs from my hands. 

 The moth proved to be Lcelia Australasia, a species of the Bombyx rubi 

 type. A few large Agrotis and some very black noctuae (Mamestra 

 niger) were picked off the trunks of some large gums, and I also took 

 a beautiful specimen of Heliothis armigera. 



This concluded the day's work, and though not a very big catch, 

 it was a very pleasant outing. On the way back a large brown snake 

 swam across the river just in front of the boat, but we thought it best 

 not to interfere with him, as there are some very venomous ones 

 here. 



