MOTHS. 303 



will soon see regular transverse lines of short silken 

 threads, not unlike railway sleepers, all over the 

 surface of the glass. These are the ''foot-holds" 

 of the caterpillar to enable it to move over the 

 smooth surface of the glass. It does it so quickly 

 that one can hardly see the placing of these threads. 



The larvffi pupate within the case, and then a 

 beautiful, soft, white, silky ''blanket" is made to 

 protect tlie pupa. The female never leaves the 

 case — she is wingless and lays the eggs within it. 

 The male emerges from the end of the case, the 

 pupal shell being pushed right out, and hangs from 

 the tip of the tail of the case. 



The male moth is winged and is not very con- 

 spicuous. The tiny larvae let themselves down from 

 the case by long silken threads. 

 , Metura elongata (Plate 37, Figs. 1, 2, and 3) is 

 the largest case moth, the larva which forms a 

 very large case, with pieces of stick sewn in, is 

 of orange brown and black colour. There is the 

 faggot case, leaf case, and the beautiful little ribbed 

 case. The "moths" are popularly named from the 

 type of case woven by the larvae. (Plate 37, Figs. 

 4, 5, and 6.) 



Interesting experiments can be made to show the 

 weaving powers of the larvae. We cut the case of 

 Mettira from end to end. Almost instantly the 

 larva drew it together at the upper end; then it 

 wove the edges so neatly and so closely that it 

 was hard to detect where the incision had been 

 made. It is curious, too, to find that there arc 

 careless individuals who just cobble their cases 

 together; we came across this three or four times. 



