265 
left of the railway line (facing Klang). The amount of damage 
done was extraordinary, a large acreage being almost complete- 
ly stripped, as many as 50 for 60 consecutive trees often not 
having a single leaf left on them. On these trees the caterpillars 
were busily feeding on the rind of the green berries, to which 
they invariably turn when the leaf supply is exhausted. Whole 
branches of berries had suffered thus, looking very much as if 
the rind had been gnawed off by mice. Where any leaves re- 
mained the berries were practicaly untouched, and as long as 
any green berries remained the ripe ones were seldom attacked, 
though the caterpillars in some cases turned to these finally. At 
this date (Jany. 31st) thousands of chrysalides could be collect- 
ed in a very short time, the debris of earth and dead leaves 
round the bases of the coffee trees, and every piece of rotten 
wood, etc., lying about being full of them. The caterpillars go 
through the transformation into chrysalides only just beneath 
the surface of the soil; sometimes on it, covered only by the deed 
leaves which collect round the stems of the trees. They are al- 
ways found in a horizontal position, and by constantly wriggling 
from side to side in the loose top-soil usually make themselves a 
cavity a little larger than their bodies. 
When approached or aware of danger, the caterpillars cease 
feeding, raise the fore part of the body with the head bent down- 
wards in the usual Sphinx caterpillar style, and remain motion- 
less while danger threatens. When touched they secrete from 
the mouth a drop or two of a greenish brown fluid, which on ex- 
posure to the air, immediately becomes a rich golden-brown 
very like iodine, staining the hands or clothes wherever it touches. 
Of small and medium sized caterpillars, I noticed that this fluid 
was usually of a bright grass-green for a second or so after secre- 
tion ; in the larger ones it appeard to be of a greenish brown im- 
mediately it left the creature’s mouth. Presumably this fluid 
has an extremely unpleasant taste, and is the caterpillar’s only 
protection against insectivorous birds and animals. 
The colouring of the caterpi* 11 ^ Ranges a great deal during 
its existence and i= piotected, beyond being green when the 
skin lias oeen newly shed. In fact a protective coloration would 
be rendered useless by the very numbers of the larvae, which, 
crowded together on the half stripped twigs of an attacked tree, 
are of course conspicuous. 
I have seen the green pods of a kind of vetch at a distance 
closely resembling these caterpillars in shape and colour, the horn 
at the end of the pod corresponding to the horn on the caterpillar’s 
tail did such pods occur on the food plant of the caterpillar, 
the purely accidental resemblance might be taken as an instance 
of mimicry. 
On February 2nd I again visited Petaling Estate and brought 
away a large muslin cage full of caterpillars and chrysalides . 
No moths were visible on the wing. On the third, two moths 
hatched from my chrysalides ; on the 4th, three and so on un til 
the gth, when all I had brought home were hatched. At the 
