THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 143 
EXCURSION TO KILLARA, DECEMBER, 1915. 
The members of the Club walked from the Railway 
Station to the Lane Cove River, and on the way examined 
and collected flowers and insects. On the Angophora, 
amongst Commoner specimens, was noticed the rare large 
elongate, heavily-bodied fly Apiocera, belonging to the fam- 
ily Aptoceridae, resembling the Robber Flies (Asilidac), 
of which Williston says there are under 20 species known 
in the world, and the larvae are as yet quite unknown. 
We have two species of this family here: on the East Coast 
of New South Wales, viz., Apiocera bigotii and A. asilica. 
Of the beetles there were examples of Cetontides, 
several Cleridae, and such small forms as Mordella and 
Phyllotocus. Also there were several species of Stigmo- 
dera, but again the fact is brought home to us that the 
numbers of Stigmodera, or longicorn beetles in particular, 
which some 10 years ago were so plentiful in similar ad- 
jacent bush in the newer suburbs, are not nearly so plen- 
tiful as regards number of species and individuals. The 
Buprestidae and Longicorns are tree-borers in their larval 
stages, and two or three years are required for these bor- 
ing grubs to become full-grown and pupate. These 
species are therefore perhaps the first to be eliminated, 
whereas possibly the root-feeding Lamellicorns and leaf- 
eaters, such as Paropsis, escape destruction more 
readily. 
At the butt of a wattle tree several clusters of Bag- 
shelter moth ova were discovered, each cluster consist- 
ine of a hundred or more eggs fastened together by a 
secretion, and the whole covered by scale-like hairs from 
the tip of the abdomen of the female moth, which lays 
the eggs. Hence these are called ‘‘Brown-tailed moths,’’ 
and the eggs were those of 7eara, a species whose cater- 
pillars form those striking columns which pass across the 
eround from tree to tree, known as Processional cater- 
pillars. Qn the wattle and gum trees they feed on the 
foliage at night, and construct a silken bag, which is the 
common home or shelter by day of the whole of the 
group of caterpillars. Specimens of Callistemon rigidus 
were gathered probably from the site whence R. Brown 
secured and named the plant. 
W. B. Gurney. 
