204 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
fodder, pupates early in spring, and remains underground 
during the drought conditions of summer. This year, im- 
mediately after the April rains, the moths, which fly low 
over the grass in the daytime, appeared, and were numer- 
ous for about 21 days, when a second fall of rain seemed 
to exterminate them. 
The shoulders of the moth are particularly strong 
and specially adapted for working the insect out of the 
ground. As no emergence of the moth was noted so far 
in the daytime, this probably takes place in the early 
morning, or even duriug the night, when the surface of 
the ground is moistened by the dew. 
The eggs found were laid singly, and were spherical 
in shape. In about six weeks’ time the young caterpillars 
were observed feeding on the growing crow’s-foot. 
When full-grown and ready to pupate, the caterpillar 
leaves its feeding place and searches for a suitable situa- 
tion to commence operations, tapping the ground here and 
there with its front legs and jaws, evidently to test its 
hardness. After selecting a bare patch, the caterpillar 
bites the earth and works it up into little pellets about 
as large as a pin’s head. Then, swinging the fore-part of 
its body to the right or left, it deposits the pellet some 
inches away, while it brushes the surface of the ground at 
each outward sweep with its forelegs, 
« 
This operation is repeated until a cylindrical hole is 
bored to the full depth of the caterpillar’s body, although 
it always maintains a grip of the surface with its claspers. 
Next, it clears away the pellets from all around the open- 
ing, and then enters the hole tail first. 
To seal up the entrance, it removes the soil from all 
around, and thus makes a slight dish-like depression, while 
it plasters up the entrance bit by bit, first working with 
its head projecting. then as the hole gets smaller it 
finishes the sealing up process from the inside, and makes 
a neat job of it. 
