336 LEPIDOPTERA. 



longer, and cling very tightly to the lining of the case, which 

 is composed of a cylinder or spindle-shaped habitation of very 

 thick, tough, soft white silk. Outside, this is completely 

 covered with pieces of grass, heather-twigs, furze-twigs, bits 

 of rush, fir-needles or any other dry vegetable fragments 

 which are available, all being arranged so as to point 

 obliquely backward and outward, and to form a somewhat 

 formidable covering. A living larva now before me, having 

 taken a sudden fancy to lengthen its case, has cut out 

 irregular pieces of white blotting-paper and arranged them 

 around it in front of the original twigs, giving the case a 

 singular appearance. The case is only open at its lower end, 

 and is there composed of silk so elastic that when the head 

 of the larva is withdrawn, as it is at the smallest alarm, the 

 mouth shuts together tightly, and effectually keeps out any 

 intruder. But when full grown the larva fastens this end 

 down to a heather-stem, furze-stem, the trunk of a tree, a 

 paling, post, or other convenient and firm situation ; turns 

 completely round inside, opens out the upper end, spins a 

 silken tube there, ready for egress, and assumes the pupa 

 state within. 



August to June — either June of the second or of the third 

 vear — this seems to be variable — on heather, furze, grass, and 

 various other plants when at liberty. In confinement more 

 dainty and capricious, sometimes feeding on bramble, straw- 

 berry, sloe, and hawthorn, or refusing all food, but 0^ most 

 extraordinary tenacity of life, so that a larva has been found 

 to remain alive a year without feeding. 



Pupa of the male light brown, of ordinary moth structure, 

 in a cocoon in the case formed by the larva, but withdrawn 

 halfway from the case on emergence. Of the female consist- 

 ing only of segments, well marked, like those of a Dipterous 

 pupa, having no covers of antennae, wings, or legs, though 

 the cover of the head forms a slight projection ; pale in 

 colour and maggot-like, in fact greatly resembling the female 



