1906.] 108 



habitation no longer affords sufficient protection, its owner deserts it, 

 and wanders off in search of another suitable leaf, which, in its turn, 

 is treated in a similar manner. Well-grown larvae are frequently 

 found inhabiting extremely small leaves, and from the number of 

 empty domiciles that are met with, often near a tenanted one, it is 

 clear that a larva generally makes use of several leaves before it 

 becomes full-fed. Occasionally, though rarely, instead of behaving 

 in the manner described above, the larva spins the young selected leaf 

 face downwards over the basal portion of the upper surface of a 

 neighbouring larger leaf, securely joining them together with silk all 

 along the margins of the sQialler one, and lives between them, devour- 

 ing the apical portion of the younger leaf from the tip downwards. 

 This exceptional habit, which is, of course, only possible in the special 

 instances where a suitable second leaf happens to grow in the right 

 position, is prompted, so far as I could judge, by the fact that the 

 leaf first selected is rathe i' too small to be satisfactorily treated in 

 the usual way. All the larvae collected, numbering 220, and of all sizes 

 from full-fed down to less than half-grown, were, with the above-men- 

 tioned rare exceptions, living and feeding in the manner first described. 

 Even when its domicile is partially opened, the larva shows no dis- 

 position to vacate it, but generally ejects from its mouth a com- 

 paratively large drop of a most nauseous-looking dark brown fluid, 

 which would doubtless repel many of its natural foes. It appears 

 to be remarkably lethargic in nature, though in confinement, among 

 distasteful surroundings, it proved itself decidedly active and 

 energetic. 



Snellen states [De Ylind. v. Nederland, Microlep., p. 34^0 (1882) ] 

 that the larva pupates in the ground, but no earth was supplied to 

 my captive larvae, and they spun their cocoons in the tight folds of 

 the muslin bag in which they were kept, or among the tightly packed 

 mass of decaying leaves that accumulated in the bottom of it. The 

 surrounding material, whether muslin or leaf, was firmly fastened to 

 the cocoons, and wrapped closely and completely round them even on 

 their inner sides, which, in the case of cocoons spun in folds of 

 muslin, &c., are almost invariably left to some extent free. This 

 peculiar habit is all the more remarkable because of the extremely 

 dense, tough, and doubtless waterproof nature of the cocoon itself, 

 which is made of white or yellowish-wbite silk, and is elliptical in 

 shape, being generally about 11 — 12 mm. long, by 4 — 45 mm. in 

 greatest breadth. 



The larvae clearly remain unchanged in tbeir cocoons for some 



