42 THE entomologist's record. 



cocoon is pierced, but I gather that he believes a weak place exists, 

 such as is left for the emergence of the moth in the cocoon of so many 

 species, and that the ovipositor of the moth penetrates this. He care- 

 fully notes that the moth preserves the pupal covering of the head, 

 which still covers her anterior extremity Avhen she has reversed herself 

 in the chrysalis case, and specially dwells on this as showing that 

 before her reversal she has thus provided an opening in the pupa-case, 

 but he says nothing about the cocoon. 



To return to our (>. Hphndida. Finding in the examination of my 

 first specimen that I had an Ori/i/ia whose female did not emerge from 

 the cocoon, I concluded that it must belong to the same species as the 

 males we had observed, and the idea occurred to me that my other 

 two specimens might give me the opportunity to observe something 

 of the pairing habits of the species. The cocoons are quite sufficiently 

 transparent to enable one to see the enclosed pupa against the light, 

 and my second cocoon appeared to contain an undisturbed pupa. The 

 first specimen showed that the pupa-case is exceedingly flimsy, and 

 that the moth, in emerging from it, or afterwards, breaks it up into 

 small fragments, retaining, however (as Dr. Breyer records of <K 

 en'cae), on her head, the pupal head-coverings. I waited, therefore, 

 until some changes occurred in the cocoon, suggesting the emergence 

 of the moth from the chrysalis case, and this seemed to have occurred 

 when we were atTragacete on July 24th. My idea was that the moth 

 flew in the evening, as I had met with it on the wing towards dusk. 

 I afterwards, however, saw it flying in the afternoon in bright sun- 

 shine. On the evening of July 24th I, therefore, took the cocoon to 

 the hillside and laid it on a stone. The cocoon is of yellow silk, 

 rather soft, but nevertheless not very flimsy, and I specially noticed 

 that though the moth inside was more or less free from the chrysalis, 

 which was, in fact, somewhat broken up, the cocoon itself was quite 

 intact. I had not to wait more than a few minutes before a male 

 moth came up, although I had not previously seen one that evening. 

 I captured this one, and one that came up just after, and think that 

 had I simply captured each as it came up I might have made a con- 

 siderable bag. My object, however, was observation, and not speci- 

 mens, and the next moth that came just after, I did not disturb. He 

 soon found the cocoon, and walked very busily all over it, examining 

 carefully, especially by trailing the extremity of his abdomen over it. I 

 take it that this portion of his procedure would have been much simplified 

 had the cocoon been in its natural position under a stone, and but 

 little of it accessible, beyond what I must call the emergence ex- 

 tremity, but, lying loosely on a flat stone, it clearly took some time 

 to satisfy him which was the place where an opening might be 

 expected. Some of the procedure was, howevei', almost certainly 

 directed to informing the enclosed moth of his presence, and it may 

 be that he ascertains the right spot of the cocoon by the movements 

 of the female within. After some minutes he became quite quiet and 

 uiotionless, Avith his head applied to the extremity of the cocoon, and 

 so remained foi" a space of about ten minutes. What was occurring 

 during this period '? The next step noticed, combined with the fact 

 that the cocoon was uninjured just before, renders it almost certain 

 that the moth inside is occupied during this period in making an 

 opening in the cocoon. The male is certainly not doing so, as he is 



