SOUTH AFRICAN BAGWORMS. 625 



feature of tlie bag of Gymnelema stygialis Hampsoii 

 (fig. 9), another Cossid bagworm ; wliile a third species, 

 Acanthopsyche alba Janse, carefully spins a silken 

 webbing over the outside of its bag, thus making it appear 

 as if it were an old discarded bag covered with a spider's 

 web (fig. 10). 



Still another group of bagworms, also using small sticks, 

 arrange the material neither lengthwise nor crosswise but at a 

 slight angle, and as these sticks are of increasing lengths 

 towards the upper end of the bag, this covering assumes a 

 spiral aspect. Three species of these " Spiral Bagworms," 

 all species of Melasina, fam. Tineidae, have come to our 

 notice, evincing various degrees of neatness in the arrange- 

 ment of the material. We have distinguished them as the 

 ^' Clear Spiral," (Melasina tyrophanes Meyr. fig. 11), the 

 ^'Webbed Spiral" (Melasina cnaphalodes Meyr. fig. 12), 

 and the "Rough Spiral Bagworm " (Melasina craterodes 

 3Ieyr. fig. 13). 



Then there is another species, the " Thorn Bagworm " 

 (Melasina halieutis Meyr. fig. 14), which uses nothing but 

 the fine particles of the leaf or bark on which it feeds. These 

 are arranged into smooth narrow collars, and the bag is made 

 up of a series of these which are accurately joined together, 

 and, increasing in diameter towards the mouth end, form a 

 bag, shaped like a smooth greyish-brown thorn. Still another, 

 the "Sand Bagworm" (Fumea obscurata Meyr. fig. 15), 

 which lives at the roots of grasses, uses almost nothing but 

 sand-grains in the construction of its bag, and resembles a 

 true caddice-worm in this respect. 



Lastly, we may mention a group of bagworms which are 

 distinguished from all the previous ones in that they make no 

 .silken tube to which to attach various extraneous materials. 

 The caterpillars merely construct a dwelling by glueing 

 pieces of leaf together, leaving a variously shaped cavity in 

 which the larva lives. The " Flat Bagworm " (Ceromitia 

 xanthocoma Meyr. fig. 16) makes its case from pieces of the 

 blades of grass, which are arranged transversely and are 



