55 
shading of the forewings, the females being darker than the males. 
Like the brood of Axi/lia putrid the differences of individual pattern 
and coloration are insufficient to enable me to classify them. 
Malacoso.ua castrensis. —On Whit-Sunday, 1899, I took a web 
containing young larvae of this species near Port Victoria. Judging 
by their size they had only recently emerged from the eggs. The web 
or nest was more or less spherical in shape, about one inch or less in 
diameter, not unlike a nest of young spiders in general appearance. 
There can be no doubt but that all the larva; were the offspring of a 
single female. The larva; were reared in a glass jar, at first on sea- 
wormwood (.Artemisia liiaritiina ) and sea lavender (Staticc liiiionium). 
After a week their food was gradually changed to sallow and knot¬ 
grass (Poli/i/onum ariailare) on which they throve surprisingly. In 
about fourteen or fifteen days they were transferred to a large gauze 
covered flower-pot, and when they outgrew this receptacle they were 
again transferred to a small wooden tub, gauze-covered, and with a 
layer of damp cocoanut fibre at the bottom. Both the pot and tub 
were kept in a well ventilated garden frame, in order that they might 
have the advantage of sun, warmth and fresh air, all of which 1 believe 
are essential to development. Their food, after the first ten days, was 
limited to sallow and knot-grass with an occasional supply of broad 
leaved plantain, and a soft grey-leaved willow when they exhausted 
my supplies of sallow. Very few, if any, deaths occurred during the 
larval period, and all, or nearly all, spun cocoons, using an ample 
supply of silk. Considerable mortality occurred during the pupal 
period, chiefly, so far as I could ascertain, from insufficient room. The 
limited size of their quarters not allowing them to scatter, they spun 
up in dense masses, with the result that many moths were unable to 
emerge from their cocoons at all. A few were hopelessly crippled, while 
in some cases the lame had failed to pupate successfully, owing to 
their cocoons being drawn out of shape by other larvae spinning 
against them. In all, about 80 specimens emerged, some three 
or four escaping. The following notes refer to 77, 14 of which 
are females ( = 57%), and 39 are males ( = 43%). The range of varia¬ 
tion as regards size is considerable, and in coloration it is very 
wide. Four males and three females are complete cripples, two males 
and three females have poorly-developed wings ; this is especially 
noticeable as regards the hindwings of all three females, and one of the 
males. In the males, variation is from canary-yellow to dark umber on 
the forewings, intermediate shades being also present. The hindwings 
do not show anything like the same range of variation as the forewings. 
But all the pale forms have a tendency to develop remnants of a pale 
band on the hindwings, which is entirely absent on those of the dark 
forms. Fifteen specimens ( = 46%) are on what I should describe as 
the pale side of the line, and 11 ( = 33%) on the dark. One is of a 
unicolorous ochre, having the forewing markings nearly obsolete. The 
remainder are ill expanded or cripples. Of the females 24 ( = 60%) 
have well marked pale bands across the forewings, while in 16 ( = 40%) 
there is a more or less strongly marked tendency for this character to 
be obsolete; most of the latter are dark forms, while with the 60% of 
banded there is a gradual and well balanced gradation from dark to 
pale ground colour. The ill-banded, suffused dark forms, show little 
or no "trace of any hindwing band, but the well banded generally show 
some traces of this character. 
