60 
THE GEELONG NATTJEALIST. 
calls it, belongs to the family of Liparidce, it is plentiful in the 
ranges. In this family the antenae is short, generally pectinated 
in the males who are often much smaller than the females, with 
comparatively slender bodies. P. ohsoleta is pure white, a black 
body with a tuft of golden yellow in the female, and white in the 
male on the end of the abdomen. Anderson says, in early spring 
the caterpillars can be found feeding on the common wattle and 
several of the broad leaved acacias ; he also says these insects 
are somewhat brightly coloured, the head and first segments 
being buif, the body bluish grey adorned with crimson, towards 
the extremity are two curious crimson projections, and along the 
sides are tufts of blackish brown hair. The moths are very con- 
spicuous objects when flying about among the scrub, and I have 
often been tempted to run after them and secure a specimen; they 
are said to lay their eggs on the trunks of trees and cover with 
the hair taken from the tuft at the extremity of their tail. We 
have a second specimen of Porthesia hololeuca taken at Gisborne, 
near Melbourne, but I have never taken it here. 
Dasypodia selenophora belongs to the family of Noctuina. 
This is very common in houses in the bush, it is a large moth about 
two inches across the wings, which are a beautiful velvet brown, 
with large eye-like markings on the fore- wings, and it is very 
plentiful at times, the good ladies in the country often call it the 
Bacon Moth. A second specimen of this moth I have taken, 
that probably was D. Oymatoides, but unfortunately it was 
destroyed by insects. There are only two specimens of Dasypodia 
catalogued for Victoria, to it is likely that the one I got was 
the second specimen. 
Darala^ Family Liparidae. 
Darala censons (Walk). Or the Pine Darala, The lavas 
are often seen on the trees or fences near where they feed; they 
are a smoky black above, rusty red beneath, and very hairy. 
In December, 1891, Miss Mulder at Highton found some cater- 
pillars about three inches long crawling among the material of 
which a sparrows' nest was built, the insects were put away in a 
well ventilated box with a glass cover, and fed on pine leaves 
sprinkled with water for about two months, said leaves appeared 
to be their natural food as they ate them with great relish. At 
the end of Pebruary one of the lavae crawled away into the corner 
of the box and commenced making its cocoon, after doing which 
the long hairs (about a quarter of an inch long) were forced 
through all over it making the cocoon look something like a 
mouse, but on touching it with the finger the spike-like hairs 
would pierce the skin like so many needles, this made us careful 
how we touched them in future; the perfect insect made its 
appearance in about a month by eating its way out of the cocoon, 
this was the male, having full feathered antenae about half an 
