644 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII, 



result was that no more males approached the female. I have invari- 

 ably found that, as soon as a male Psychid has had connection with a 

 female, the latter ceases to attract other males, hut so long as this can be 

 prevented males can be taken one after the other with great facility. 

 Sub-Family PSYCHING. 

 Genus Acanthopsyche, Heyl. 

 Sub-genus (Eceticoides, Heyl. 

 621. (E.bipars^^lk, 

 Sikhim, 5,500 feet. This is a destructive insect to tea at higher 

 elevations. I obtained a pupa at Tukvar from a bush which was com- 

 pletely stripped of leaves and bark. This emerged as a female in 

 November and I was fortunate enough to obtain 7 males from it before 

 connection was made, when, although I saw a few more males flying 

 around, I was not able to induce them to settle. The abdomen of the 

 male in the Psychidce is capable of great elongation, and this is neces- 

 sary, as it is required to be forced between the body of the female and 

 the pupa shell, in which the female remains until she has completed her 

 oviposition, in order to effect copulation. In the only specimen of a 

 male now remaining in my collection, veins Ic and Ih do not appear 

 to anastomose, but Sir George Hampson assures me that the specimen 

 which I gave Mr. Moore, and which was taken from the same female, 

 is normal. 



Sub-genus Metisa, Wlk. 

 630a. M. canifrons, Hmpsn. 

 Sikhim. This is a small species, the pupa of which is formed in a 

 case similar to that figured by Hampson of Psyche {HeT/lcertsia) fusca, 

 Hampson, The type is in the British Museum. 



Q'60h. M. gigantea^ n. sp. (Plate I, Fig. 14, $), 

 Sikhim, 1,800 feet. Differs from typical Metisa in the forewing 

 havin cr veins 4 and 5 stalked ; 7, 8, 9 and 10 stalked : hindwing with 

 4 and 5 from a point, and a spur from the middle of 8 towards the 

 costa. 



$ . AntennsB strongly bipectinated to the tip ; thorax pale 

 brownish ; abdomen covered with long hair. Forewing fuscous-brown, 

 the area below vein 2 and the median nervnre dusky ochreous. Hind- 

 wing with the outer margin slightly excised from vein Ic to vein 3, 

 fuscous throughout. Three specimens taken at light at Punkabareej 



