346 LEPID OP TERA . 



anal prolegs larger and used to hold on to the inside of the 

 case ; anal segment with a blackish plate on the back. In a 

 rather roughly ovate or spindle-shaped case, formed of small 

 morsels of leaf and of dried stalks or other vegetable material, 

 such as seed-capsules of plantain and sallow, and having short 

 bits of dried grass placed upon it somewhat crosswise ; very- 

 tough and thickly lined with soft silk. (Preserved females, 

 larvae and cases furnished by Dr. Mason and Mr. C. A. Briggs.) 

 August to May of the second year, feeding nearly two 

 years. On sallow, blackthorn, oak, hawthorn, hazel, bramble, 

 and hornbeam, subsisting upon the leaves ; probably also on 

 low-growing plants. 



Pupa of the male of the usual moth-form, dark brown ; of 

 the female apparently maggot-like and resembling the female 

 moth. That of the male divides down the outer margin of 

 the wings, on each side, so that the covering of wings, legs, 

 and antennte is thrown off solidly in front when the moth 

 emerges ; it is also protruded considerably from the case. 

 In a cocoon within the larva-case, which is fixed upon a plant 

 by the end which had been used for the head and legs, the 

 other being altered to allow the moth to emerge. 



The male moth seems rarely to have been observed on the 

 wing, but is said to fly mostly towards evening. Almost 

 all the specimens in collections appear to have been reared. 

 The cases are said first to have been found about the year 

 1820 in Hornsey Wood, ]\liddlesex, and from that period for 

 many years the insect inhabited that and the neighbouring 

 woods at Highgate and Hampstead, also Winchmore Hill. 

 In some years scarce, in others rather common, though it is 

 recorded that they were so much infested with Ichneumons 

 that even when the larva? were most abundant very few were 

 reared. The incessant growth of London has so greatly 

 influenced these old localities for this insect, that it seems 

 almost to have died out. Certainly for the last twenty years 

 it has become much scarcer, and as the woods already men- 



