48 LORD WALSINGHAM ON A NEW GENUS 



one compartment, I found a dead larva, and my heart sank within me ; but in the next 

 I found a fine healthy chrysalis, and so in the others I have opened: 



" You have a specimen of the caterpillar mounted. In my list it is No. 23 of 1879, 

 and I liave the following notes on it : — ' June 28. On Jamin. Larvi3e covered 

 with a thick coating of du'ty white silk ; each larva in a separate compartment. Had 

 searched for two years for this; and then found all the larvae changed to chrysalids. 

 Moths came out first fortnight of July ; c? and ? differ.' 



"This I afterwards discovered was the second brood; these which I am sending you 

 should come out soon, if the second lot should be spun up and in chrysalis state on 28tli 

 June, when I found the chrysalis in 1879. You should, I think, place them in a warm, 

 damp air. I remember these coming out in the sweltering heat of the rains in the Kangra 

 Valley. It is, I think, a triumph to have described this insect to unknowing people in 

 India, and in getting home a by no means common thing just in the right state. I told 

 my friend as nearly as possible where to find it, and told him to go on cutting open the 

 compar^^ments every week, until he found a chi-ysalis and not a caterpillar. And he 

 seems to have acted up to his orders. You might, perhaps, send a clump to Mr. Moore 

 and let him see the moths come out." 



The cocoons referred to in the above letter reached me safely, and were placed in a 

 conservatory in my house in London. 



The perfect insects emerged in the months of June and July, and although a large 

 proportion of them were cripples, several good specimens were obtained. I believe that 

 Mr. Moore also succeeded in rearing some from the clusters of cocoons which I sent to 

 him. I am much indebted to him for an opportunity of examining some allied forms 

 from his Indian collection, as well as for the suggestion, in which I entirely concur, 

 that the genus is allied to the well-known European genus Aglossa. In proof of a 

 somewhat similar tendency to gregarious habits in that genus, the following extract 

 from the late Mr. Wm. Buckler's notes on the life-history of Aglossa cuprealls, Hb., 

 published in the Ent. Mon. Mag., Sept. 1884, p. 76, may be referred to : — 



" From the first they spin the rubbish together, making tubes much in the same way 

 as ^ji«^e<e«rtiis and often making use of a straw, bean-husk, or folded leaf of Cladliim 

 mariscus, as a private retreat ; they seem, when supplied with plenty of materials, to 

 make the sides of their galleries of some considerable thickness, and sometimes two or 

 three larvae were found inhabiting the same gallery, which, however, in such a case 

 would be noticeably longer than one occupied by a single tenant." 



This account, taken together with other evidence, is valuable as showing analogy 

 between the habits of the two species in the larval state, and strongly supports tlie 

 conclusion that some afiinity exists between them. 



The following is the description of a new genus and species, taken from the specimens 

 above mentioned (figured on the Plate which accompanies this paper) : — 



