Journal of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa

When rearing butterflies from eggs or larvae, one aims at obtaining perfect specimens or, if studying the life history, is satisfied with his observations on a batch of eggs reared under normal conditions. Only when broods are reared under abnormal and even drastic conditions such as scarcity of food, alternate foods or withering food, is the wonderful tenacity of some species revealed. This tenacity perhaps accounts for the appearance of certain species in a district where severe drought seemed to have exterminated everything. After drought migrants repopulate a district, but I refer to those species which do not migrate.

Because of the widespread occurrence of this woodborer in the Western Cape Province, it is felt that an accurate descriptionption of the insect is necessary, to aid entomologists and foresters in identifying it, especially as publications dealing with the taxonomic descriptionption of Oxypleurus nodieri Muls. are practically unobtainable in this country.