24 METAMORPHOSES OF BRAZILIAN LEPIDOPTERA. 



(? Not preserved. 



' 2 Preserved in spirit, March, 1880. 



The female moth is wingless, legless, and mouthless, and 

 is, in fact, almost nothing more than a living bag of eggs. 

 The male is of a dull brown colour, with a long abdomen, 

 and the wings are narrow and long, and almost devoid of 

 scales at the tips. Unfortunately, I am not quite certain as 

 to the identity of the specimens I have, two species having 

 been mixed together ; so I delay placing the male in the col- 

 lection until some future date, when I hope to procure males 

 of whose identity there can be no doubt. 



The female does not leave the case when she emerges 

 from the pupa, but is fertilised, and lays her eggs in the 

 empty pupa-shell, and for some time after laying the eggs 

 she still remains in the case. On March 13th, 1880, 1 found 

 several specimens that had left their cases, that were 

 hanging up in my room. They had laid all their eggs, and 

 were mere bags distended with air, and they rolled about on 

 the table in a helpless way, reminding me forcibly of 

 maggots. The skin was blown quite tight, like a bladder, 

 and the tracheae could be traced beautifully through the 

 thin integument. To see whether there was anything but 

 air inside the animal, I placed one of them under bisulphide 

 of carbon fumes for a minute or two, and when dead, as I 

 thought, I punctured the abdomen. A slight pressure forced 

 the air out of the insect, and it became a wretched shrivelled- 

 up bit of skin. I then introduced a pipette, and blew the 

 skin out again. But, to my astonishment, after all this, the 

 effects of the bisulphide passed off", and the moth revived, 

 apparently none the worse for the operation. 



On cutting open one of the cases that the moths had left, 

 I found the pupa-shell full of already hatched larva. The 

 effect was most wonderful. I slit the pupa-case open a little, 

 and the tiny caterpillars came pouring out in myriads. In 



