394 



LEPIDOPTERA 



A c 



Fig. 197. — Baskets, or cases, of Psychidae. A, 

 Amicta qmidrangularis ; B, Apfei'ona(or Goch- 

 hqilioru) vahvta ; C, Cludin Iwckiitgi. 



like the surface of a shell. Psyche helix is, according to 

 Iiigenitzky/ found in great numbers near Lake Issyk-kul in 



Central Asia, where the 

 larvae feed, in their snail- 

 shell-like cases, on a grass, 

 just like snails. Only 

 females could be reared 

 from these larvae. The 

 case of Chalia hockingii 

 (Fig. 197, C) consists of 

 little pieces of wood cut 

 to the proper lengths, and 

 spirally arranged, so as to 

 form a construction that 

 would be quite a credit to 

 our own species. In some 

 of the Canephorinae we 

 meet with long cylindrical cases, like those of Caddis-worms, or 

 of Tineid larvae. 



Kiley has given an account of several points in the struc- 

 ture and natural history of one of the North American basket- 

 or bag-worms, Thyridoyteryx ephemeraeformis ; one of his points 

 being the manner in which the newly hatched larva forms its 

 case." This question has also Ijeen discussed by Packard.^ The 

 larvae when hatched in unnatural conditions will make use of 

 fragments of paper, cork, etc., for the case ; the act of construc- 

 tion takes one or two hours, and the larva does not eat till the 

 case is completed. It walks in a peculiar manner, the legs of 

 the third pair l)eing moved forwards together, as if they were 

 the prongs of a fork. 



This family is already one of considerable extent, but its 

 study, as already remarked, is but little advanced. Some 

 naturalists are inclined to place it among the Tineidae, but it 

 is connected with Zygaenidae by means of Heterogynidae. Mr. 

 Meyrick divides it, placing Psyche and Sterrhoj^teryx (the forms 

 representing, according to his ideas, the family Psychidae in 

 Britain) in the series Psychina wdiich includes Zygaenidae. He 



1 Zool. Anz. XX. 1S97, p. 473. This is probably Aptcrona crenulcUa, or one 

 of its varieties. - Bull. U.S. Dcp. AcjHc. Ent. x. 1887, p. 22. 



■' Ann. Xcw York Jr. viii. 189-3, p. 54. 



