Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/128

Not only does this moth fully answer to the observation of Lewin, that it is the most beautiful species we have seen of that tribe of moths sometimes known in England by the name of Swifts, but its transformations are equally unlike those of the rest of the genus, having more resemblance to those of Cossus or Zeuzera. The larva forms a lodgement or chamber in the centre of a stem of a species of Casaurina or the she-oak of the colony, and feeding on the bark and sappy wood directly above the entrance, eating round the stem, and carefully hiding its dilapidations by weaving fragments of wood and bark which it gnaws off, in a strong web; forming at once a fortification and disguise of considerable bulk and thickness around the stem, under which, in a winding cylindric passage, the larva constantly keeps its body while at work, alternately gnawing and weaving; but retires to the chamber in the stem to repose. Across the mouth of this chamber it spins a close web, and changes to a pupa in January, soon after which the concealing fabric, to form which the larva took so much pains, falls away. It remains in the pupa state about twenty-five days, when, by a strong vertical motion of its joints and serrated rings, the pupa forces the web, and the moth is produced generally in February. The moth is shown at rest in the upper part of the plate, and the larva in a section of its chamber, and its disguise, as mentioned above, in other parts of the plate.