6 
Psyche 
[February 
THE STRANGE WAY IN WHICH THE VISHNU-MOTH 
( TRAP ALA VISHNU) DEPOSITS HER EGGS IN THE 
SHAPE OF LARVvE. 1 
By Eric Mjoberg. 
In the small residential town of Kuching, Borneo, an invasion 
of voracious caterpillars in the garden and house of one of the 
residents was reported to me in October 1924. Certain plants 
were entirely defoliated and a large number of large hairy cater- 
pillars of the usual Lasiocampid type were seen crawling about 
everywhere, even entering the rooms of the house and causing 
much inconvenience and annoyance. Obviously a mass propaga- 
tion due to favorable circumstances had taken place. Ordinarily 
Trabala vishnu is a moth of rare occurrence; even in the rich 
collections of the Sarawak Museum only some few specimens 
were to be found. 
As the larva has already been described and figured, I shall 
not consider it in the present note. 
A fertilized female was temporarily placed by me in an 
empty paper box and left over night. On opening the box on 
the following day I was very much surprised to see beside the 
moth, a considerable number of larvae on the sides. I thought it 
very strange to begin with, but a somewhat closer examination 
soon revealed the fact that what I had taken for larvae consisted 
of eggs laid in two parallel rows with an odd egg at the top.' 
Furthermore, the mother had arranged it so that a darkly pig- 
mented spot on each egg was always directed outwards with the 
effect that two dark longitudinal lines were formed, reminding 
one of the condition so often found in caterpillars. When I add 
that the mother had covered the egg strings with hairs from her 
own body, it is easy to understand that these completely con- 
veyed the impression of being small hairy caterpillars. 
On plate 1, A, a photograph of the eggs found in the box is 
reproduced. There are altogether 13 string, 8 laid separately 
and 5 more or less joined together. In nearly every string an 
Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Insti- 
tution, Harvard University, No. 258. 
