NOTES ON THE HATilTS AND T.TFR-TIT'^TORY OF ORfiYlA SPLENDIDA. 18 



perfectly quiet, but with an aspect of attention. Suddenly he becomes 

 quite active, thrusts his head into an opening at the end of the cocoon, 

 just where it had been resting, and in less than half a minute disap- 

 pears entirely into the cocoon, his wings being pressed and folded 

 against his sides, so as to occupy little or no space, so that one reckons 

 that their splendour must be absolutely and permanently destroyed. I 

 then took home the cocoon, now containing two moths instead of one. 

 The opening by which the male had entered was very small indeed, but 

 quite evident, though its margins had closed together again. This was 

 at 6.45 p.m. ; at 9 a.m. the next morning matters remained in the 

 same condition — the cocoon still contained two moths. On returning 

 home at B p.m. I found the male moth had come out of the cocoon 

 and was at rest in the box. The curious part here is that his wings 

 seemed little the worse for the severe treatment they had received. 

 He is not a very fine fresh specimen, but a fairly good one, for all I 

 can say possibly as fresh as when he first presented himself to my 

 observation. The female then lays her eggs inside the cocoon. They 

 are very large white eggs, and quite free from any adhesive material, 

 but with a similar admixture of wool from the moth to that which Dr. 

 Breyer says O. ericae mixes with her eggs. Seeing the destruction that 

 the moth makes of her pupa-case, and having been lucky in making 

 a fairly satisfactory observation on the second cocoon, I devoted the 

 third to obtaining a specimen of the female pupa, and so did not repeat 

 the observation. My two cocoons and one larva were thus all three 

 free from any parasites, which Dr, Breyer says destroys more than four- 

 fifths of O. ericae. 



The ? moth has no head-parts uncovered by the permanently 

 worn pupal head-cover, she has no trace of wings, bat she possesses 

 six curiously short thick legs, with very strong well-developed claws. 

 I was not inside the cocoon whilst the male was waiting outside, but 

 short of the certainty that might be attained, were such a position 

 possible, I entertain no doubt that the female is tearing the opening 

 in the cocoon with these powerful claws during this interval. After 

 she has laid her eggs she is very Haccid, but still contains a good deal 

 of some material of a fluid or jellylike character, and has a skin of 

 very great toughness. She remains alive for a number of days, and 

 out of the cocoon in a dry pillbox she retains some sort of life for two 

 months, for at the end of that time she was by no means dried up, 

 but was still a flaccid bag with some little fluid contents. How long 

 she naturally retains this condition within the cocoon I do not know, 

 possibly all the winter, for I believe the eggs do not hatch till spring. 

 Nor with the small material at my disposal can I say how this fact 

 operates for the protection of the eggs, but I have little doubt that the 

 body of the mother operates in some way to exclude intruders from 

 the cocoon, or possibly to prevent too dry air reaching the eggs. 



The 5 chrysalis is of a very pale brown, not much darker than 

 straw colour, with a length of 14mm. and a width of nearly 7nnii. 

 The whole dorsal region is clothed with a sparse coatmg of pale yellow 

 hairs, which are placed in some degree, as a dorsal patch on each side, 

 and a row along the posterior margin of the segment, and smaller 

 patches above and below the spiracles. It has at first sight an abso- 

 lutely maggot-like aspect, and none of the ordinary appearance of a 

 lepidopterouspupa. The segmentations are visible from end to end of the 



