112 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
November, 1922 
SOME CITY MOTHS. 
('Heterocerous Lepidoptera taken on ceiling and walls of 
a house at Bulimba and garden round same during 
season, 1921.) 
BY R. ILLIDGE. 
These comprise a proportion only of the most note- 
worthy as regards habits, destructive or otherwise, of 
the insects captured, and serve to show what may be 
done with electric or acetylene light, and an examination 
of the foliage and flowers of the plants of the garden 
in making up a small collection without leaving the pre- 
cincts of home. The total from this restricted area is 
54 species, and of these I have marked 17 for special 
reference. 
No. 1. Spilosoma fuscinula (the omnivorous pest). — 
The larva of this, a very hairy creature, dark brown 
with a very distinct light dorsal line, is amongst the most 
destructive of garden insects), scarcely anything being 
exempt. 
No. 2. Teara contraria is not a garden pest, but 
merely a visitor attracted by the light. It is well known 
in larval state as being gregarious and building a large 
communal silken nest for protection during the day at 
the foot of its food plant ( Acacia , sp.), from which it fre- 
quently entirely strips the leaves (phvllodia). 
No. 3. Orgyia postica . — A pest of begonia, geranium, 
and other plants. Caterpillar, hairy and crested. Female 
moth apterous and lays its eggs in a mass, covering them 
with silken web interspersed with hairs from its large 
body. 
No. 4. Oxyodes tricolor . — An unusual visitor, with 
very variable forewings resembling leaves in various 
stages of decay with fungoid growths. 
No. 5. Deiopeia pulchella . — Cosmopolitan in distribu- 
tion, its. food plant here is the rattle pod (C rot alarm ) . 
No. 6. Ophiusa (Achaea) mclicerte is a pest of the 
castor-oil plant ( Ricinus communis) and should this plant 
be extensively cultivated for extraction of the oil will 
require watching, as I have known it strip the leaves 
completely. It also attacks other plants of the Crotoneae 
