440 ARBELA TETRAONIS. 

full-grown caterpillars and almost mature pupz on_ the 
1st June in Cuddalore, and what appear to be nearly 
_ mature caterpillars in June in Nellore.* In Chatrapur_ it has 
been ascertained that the larva passes eight months in 
this stage of its existence. It spends most of this time 
feeding upon the bark, which it eats off the tree in patches 
which are at times several inches wide. It does not. move 
about the bark of the tree in the open but constructs 
for itself a kind of covered. way, resembling a glorified 
termite (white ant) gallery, consisting of particles of its excre- 
ment bound together with a kind of close-woven felted silk, 
Externally the appearance is simply that of a mass of excrement- 
ous particles. These covered ways curl round and up or down 
the tree and are very conspicuous (v7de fig. e), being about 4 
to } inch in breadth and from 9 inches to as-‘much as 18 “inches 
in length, They are reddish brown to, in parts, black in 
colour and form raised galleries on the surface of the stem. 
Sometimes the gallery completely encircles the stem, the 
tree being then ringed; at others it is: taken ina spiral manner 
up or down the tree. At times two or more covered ways 
join together, but they are more usually, except in very badly 
infested trees, separate. The bark beneath the gallery is 
always eaten, either only the upper green living tissues being 
consumed or the whole being removed down to the sapwood. 
Oceasionally, as mentioned above, the bark is seen to he 
eaten off the tree in irregular-shaped patches on either side 
of the covered way. This may be done by the young larvee 
living and feeding gregariously together before they construct 
covered ways for themselves, or the caterpillar may leave the 
covered way at night and eat off the bark in its vicinity. 
These galleries or covered ways have a more or less uniform 
width throughout their entire length, and from-their appear- 
ance the larva would seem to add to them at the sides so-that 
| 
* Larvze have also been reported by Mr. H. ‘A. Latham on Casuarina. in 
South Canara in August. 
t Mr. Fischer has since shown that from the very first the larva constructs 
a covered way made up of particles of its own excrement and bark jOined with 
silk, 


