1888.] 271 



cone, when probably they take care not to encroach on each other. I had no less 

 than six in one cone ; for some reason or otlier they had preferred it to others that 

 were alongside. They will, however, fight sometimes. A full-fed fellow emerged 

 one day, and as it was smaller than any of the others had been, I thought it might 

 not have done feeding, and introduced it into an opening that was apparently tenant- 

 less ; the animal went in readily enough to half its length, and then began to back 

 out, which I tried to prevent, but it would not do, and the next moment the larva 

 wriggled out and lay for an appreciable time twisting on the cone, held bull-dog 

 fashion by the neck by another larva. Blood was drawn." 



Fig. 23, 1877. In 1877, on September 7th, I received from Dr. Wood a spruce 

 fir cone containing a much finer larva than either I had seen previously ; it measured 

 rather more than seven-eighths of an inch long, of rather stout figure, uniform in 

 size, except that it tapered slightly from the third segment forward to the head the 

 smallest, the 13th segment very slightly tapering. 



In colour the head black-brown, plate on the second segment also with wide 

 dorsal division of the same colour as the back of the larva, a rather reddish-brown, 

 beneath the spiracles this colour is abruptly separated from the rather paler colour 

 of the belly, most defined posteriorly ; the dorsal line is rather darker brown, but 

 on the 13th segment becomes obliterated by a broad pale stripe, relieved by a dark 

 blackish-brown stripe on either side ; on the back the tubercular dots are black, 

 reddish-brown on the belly ; ocellated spot of whitish, with black centres, on side of 

 3rd and 12th segments, with extra long hair and a fine brown hair from each dot. 



This larva was observed out of the cone on September 14th, when I figured it, 

 it was afterwards placed with the cone in a jam pot containing small fragments of 

 rotten wood, and the moth emerged on June 14th, 1878. 



On looking afterwards for the empty cocoon I found it at just the distance of 

 one-fourth from the bottom, just inside the scales, at a part where they had been 

 much ravaged or broken away ; it was oval in form, five-eighths of an inch long, 

 composed of whitish silk, but all (except the part attached to the cone) was entirely 

 covered with brown frass. The pupa skin (damaged by extraction) seemed to have 

 been about from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch in length, and of light reddish- 

 brown shining colour. 



On October 8th, 1879, I received an infested cone of spruce fir from Dr. Wood, 

 drawing my attention to a singular feature in the economy of this species. Pinned 

 to the cone I found a round flattish cocoon of white silk, partly covered with frass, 

 containing a living larva of last year (1878) lying curled in a ring. This cocoon he 

 tells me is a false or temporary cocoon, or hibernaculum, constructed simply for 

 hibernation ; and that when the larva intends to pupate, it will come out and form 

 another, the true cocoon, of the usual oval shape. Dr. Wood afiirms it to be the 

 ordinary habit of this larva to form these two kinds of cocoons, although occasionally 

 an individual is met with that dispenses with the round temporary one, and acts 

 like the one I had in 1877, which pi-oduced the moth in June, 1878. 



Last autumn (1878) Dr. Wood found an infested cone ; it was put in a tin. 

 On opening this in May, 1879, a larva was disturbed whilst making its pupating 

 cocoon, and though this contretemps happened twice, it would not be baulked of its 

 intention, and in good time produced the moth. On October 7th, when cleaning 

 out this tin for something else. Dr. Wood found in one of the corners under a few 



