Migrating Caterpillar. 
73 
not cease migrating for more than a fortnight, although in much 
diminished numbers ; but for the first days the verandah ap¬ 
peared to be alive, notwithstanding the servant was ordered to 
sweep it three or four times eacli day. Nothing stooped them, 
as they climbed the walls and pillars equally with the shrubs; 
and fortunate was it the vegetables did not suit their taste, 
otherwise nothing could have escaped their vast hordes. About 
noon every day they made a sudden halt, and each one reposed 
where he happened to be. They did not travel any more for 
the day, but at four in the morning they were once more in 
motion* They certainly proceeded much quicker than any 
caterpillars I had witnessed before, and might almost be said to 
run. On being touched they would immediately eject a drop 
of greenish fluid on the hand, the stain of which was difficult to 
wash out. I found, on keeping them, that they were cannibals, 
and made no objections to eating each other, making the attack 
on the sides. By the 12th of January scarcely one was to be 
seen. 
Their pupa? may be found under thistles, as well as peas and 
other garden vegetables, of a dark red colour, without any pro¬ 
tection, merely lying on the earth. 
The moth you will see yourself; it bore no proportion in 
number to the caterpillar; in fact, was not more plentiful 
than usual, though it is never abundant. 
[Mr. Westwood, the Secretary to the Society, has appended 
the following note :— 
The moth produced from these migrating caterpillars is one 
of the Noctuid(c y apparently belonging to the genus Xylophasia, 
being about the size of Noctua hepatica . I have represented it 
in pi. xx. fig. 1. It may be described thus:— 
No etna (Xylophasia 1 .) Ewingii, Westw. Pallid^ grisea; 
lineis tenuissimis longitudinalibus ad basin alarum anticarum 
6erieque dcnticulorum obliqua versus apicem, brunneis ; striga 
tenui punctoque ordinario albis, lrajus medio nigro, cilia albo- 
maculata, maculis mediis in discum alarum in lineis tenuissimis 
albis extensis; alisposticis pallide fuscis, apicibus saturatioribus. 
Long. corp. lin. 9. Expans. alar. lin. 19. 
Habitat in Terra Van Diemenii. Dom. Ewing. Larva 
migratoria. 
Mr. Davis has described the proceedings of a singular pro¬ 
cession of caterpillars, noticed at Adelaide, in South Australia, 
probably identical with those observed by Mr. Ewing, in the 
Magazine of Natural History, New Series, for March, 1839. 
—J. O. W.J 
