THE GEELONQ NATURALIST. 
61 
incli long, the body of the moth two inches long, across the winga 
three inches, in colour the wings are a bright reddish brown, 
shaded with drab, with puffy red feathers on the legs close to the 
body, on each of the fore wings two little round spots like eyes 
having black circles with white dots in the centre, the under set 
plain, but both pair of wings with dark lines around the margin. 
About a week after the male, the female made its appearance. 
She is of a different colour to the male, being more of a grey 
tint with an ornamental band of a different colour, which had a 
very pretty effect, the antenae of this moth were plain and the 
legs not feathered, spots on the wings but not so well defined as 
those of the male, the band across the wings is shaded into a 
lace-like pattern with wavey black and red lines running across, 
with an under line a of dots and under that again a shaded band 
of drab. Two hours after coming out of the cocoon she com- 
menced laying her eggs, the cocoon is about the size of a pigeon's 
Darala denticulater (Naum). Darala underlata (Pield). 
The moth appears about in March and April, and the caterpillars 
may often be seen in September feeding along the sides of the 
roads and paddocks, they are a good size and very hairy, and 
Tary in colour according to age, some of the tufts of hair being 
black, red, white or fawn colour. Anderson says (in the 
Victorian Naturalist), when changing their skins they generally 
fleek some log or paling on which to undergo the operation, for 
unless they can obtain a good foot-hold to attach the old skin to 
they cannot escape from it when the new one is formed within, 
and perish. It is also important that the situation is not too 
exposed. The cocoon is placed in cracks in the ground or at the 
roots of clumps of grass, the cocoon is pear shaped and of a tough 
leathery substance outside, the apex being composed of thread 
and bristles, all converging to a point inside like some rat traps 
are made ; within this an inner and smaller cocoon is constructed 
of a softer material, the entrance being a little distance within 
the outer one, the enclosed moth when ready to emerge easily 
escapes the thread, yielding to pressure from the inside, while it 
cannot be entered from without. The moth is about one and 
a half inches across the wings, those in the front being black 
with three or four undulating white lines across them, the 
under wings are greyish in colour with similar markings but 
fainter. I have a very nice sample of silk spun from this moth's 
cocoon. Darala ocellata or the common Darala : The lavae of 
these moths may often be found in the same places as D. underlata^ 
and may be recognized by their not being so bright coloured ; 
they are said to have two broods in the year whereas D. underlata 
has only one. The first brood appears feeding from June to 
September, the moths appearing in October and November, and 
