108 
HKPIALUS LIGNIVORUS. 
Not only does this moth fully answer to the 
observation of Lewin, that it is the most beautiful 
species we have seen of that tribe of moths some- 
times known in England by the name of Swifts, 
but its transformations are equally unlike those of 
the rest of the genus, having more resemblance to 
those of Cossiis or Zeuzera. The larva forms a 
lodgement or chamber in the centre of a stem of a 
species of Casaurina or the she-oak of the colony, 
and feeding on the bark and sappy wood directly 
above the entrance, eating round the stem, and care- 
fully hiding its dilapidations by weaving fragments 
of wood and bark which it gnaws off, in a strong 
web ; forming at once a fortification and disguise of 
considerable bulk and thickness around the stem, 
under which, in a winding cylindric passage, the 
larva constantly keeps its body while at work, 
alternately gnawing and weaving; but retires to 
the chamber in the stem to repose. Across the 
mouth of this chamber it spins a close web, and 
changes to a pupa in January, soon after which the 
concealing fabric, to form which the larva took so 
much pains, falls away. It remains in the pupa 
state about twenty-five days, when, by a strong 
vertical motion of its joints and serrated rings, the 
pupa forces the web, and the moth is produced 
generally in February. The moth is shown at rest 
in the upper part of the plate, and the larva in a 
section of its chamber, and its disguise, as men- 
tioned above, in other parts of the plate. 
