170 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [June, '22 



This I brought home, and put it in a glass jar with some leaves 

 and fruit. Next day it appeared neatly enclosed in three leaves 

 it had united. Then I knew I had Dibdona cnbcnsis I'runner, 

 a very rare species with this curious habit. 



Sometimes the species is found a foot from the ground, at 

 others high up in tall trees. It is very voracious, as once one 

 of them ate a young Haplopns cnbcnsis Saussure and a Dcllia 

 insulana Stal, which I had in the same jar with it. Sometimes 

 the insect stayed enclosed in its house as long as six to seven 

 days, but when disturbed it would move continuously up and 

 down in the jar, jumping from side to side, and not falling to 

 the bottom. Most of the young specimens I kept died during 

 the moults. 



A mature specimen, found September 11, 1921, gave me 

 opportunity for these notes. In making its house it began In- 

 cutting the leaf to the required size, from the margin to the 

 stem. The leaf was too long and the insect did not use two or 

 three leaves as others did. Then it stood on the uncut side of 

 the leaf, holding both sides of the leaf with the fore legs, by 

 means of the tarsal claws ; the holding is done from the center 

 of the leaf, not from the margin. When using two or three 

 leaves the insect stands on the stronger one. Then one sees it 

 act as if chewing something; it is making the mucilaginous 

 paste. After a few seconds the mouth is applied to the margin, 

 and a thread-like fluid is seen to issue therefrom. This thread 

 is attached to the opposite margin and the operation is con- 

 tinued, the labial palpi touching the threads and searching for 

 openings and weak spots in the weaving. These are covered 

 by forcing the leaf into position, where it is held by the threads. 

 The insect's head goes regularly to and fro, stopping a while 

 now and then to make more paste, then adjusting the margins 

 again until the work is finished. When the leaf cover is com- 

 pleted the insect's body (21 millimeters long) is hidden, but 

 not its antennae, which are very long (110 to 115 millimeters). 

 By turning two or three times around inside the house, the 

 antennae are rolled around its body. 



Dibdona has an enemy, a hymenopterous parasite of the 

 Microgastrine group, the larva of which feeds upon its body. 

 With so many precautions jt is often a victim of a tiny an- 

 tagonist 



