burrowing m again and pupating in the stalk. The moths 
remain quiescent during the day and fly about at sundown or 
later. 
The Gutta percha moth. 
The Gutta percha trees in Singapore are commonly attacked 
by a small Tor trix caterpillar which spins two leaves together 
and devours the epidermis and causes the death of the leaves 
and often of the shoots as it usually attacks the terminal 
leaves of the shoots and includes the bud in its nest. It is a 
sender caterpillar half an inch long, smooth with a 
dark brown shining head and a greyish black body with 
shining darker spots all down its back from which spring hairs. 
It draws the leaves together by the edge and covers the open 
ends with a wall of brown silk from which when it pupates it 
hangs by the tail. The chrysalis is dark brown an inch long 
with a curious knob projecting from between the eyes. I have 
failed to rear the moth. ' 
To the same group of moths belongs the Ramie moth describ- 
ed on p. 139 of Bulletin No. 7. 
The Atlas Moth, Attacus atlas. 
Is well known in the moth state to every observer here, as it 
is very common and our largest moth. The caterpillar is nearly 
six inches long and very stout, entirely of a pale green colour 
covered with a white bloom except for a pinkish spot just above 
the last pair of hind legs. It is quite hairless but is covered 
with large thorn-like processes. 
The animal will eat almost any kind of leaves, but appears to 
prefer those of the custard apples, I have also found it eating 
Stillingia sebifera, Trevesia eminens and even gambier leaves, 
being the only caterpillar which I have ever seen eating the 
latter. Though never appearing in very great abundance, it is 
a very destructive insect on account of its great voracity. It 
will strip a tree of its leaves in a surprisingly short time. The 
chrysalis enclosed in an egg-shaped bag of yellow silk is spun on 
the tree on which it has been feeding. The moth with its large 
curved wings red with markings of white and grey, with a large 
rhomboidal clear space on each, its fluffy red body and plumed 
antennae, is conspicuous hanging on the branches of bushes, or 
flapping slowly through the air. The male is always smaller 
than the female, which is oft^n over nine inches across the wings. 
It is not attacked by birds " and even monkeys will not eat it, 
probably on account of its peculiar musky smell. It lays a large 
number of eggs, about 300, they are firmly gummed to the under 
surface of. the leaves (Indian Museum Notes II. 72.) 
It is curious that with the immunity from enemies which both 
caterpillar and moth seem to possess, that the insect is not more 
injurious than it is. Ichneumons, however, I believe, destroy a 
quantity of the caterpillars. It may be stated that the silk of 
the cocoon though in itself good is so glued together that it is 
