PSYCHE. 



COMMUNAL COCOONS AND THE MOTHS WHICH WEAVE THEM. 



BY W. J. HOLLAND, PH.D., PITTSBURGH, PENN. 



[Annual address of the retiring president of the Cambridge Entomological Club, 13 January, 1S93.] 



One of the comparatively recent dis- 

 coveries in the field of entomological 

 investigation has been that of the curi- 

 ous habit possessed by certain lepidop- 

 terous larvae of living in communities 

 and weaving for themselves a large 

 outer cocoon, or envelope, in which 

 they each subsequently spin a smaller 

 cocoon in which they undergo trans- 

 formation into the chrysalid state, and 

 from which they subsequently emerge 

 as moths. Thus far this habit has only 

 been observed in the hyponomeutid 

 genus Hyphantidium, the genera 

 Anaphe, Walk., and Hypsoides, Butl. 

 (Coenostegia, Mabille), which have 

 been commonly referred to the Noto- 

 dontidae,* and the pyralid genus Coeno- 

 domus, Walsingham. To this list I 

 now have the pleasure of adding a lip- 

 arid moth from tropical West Africa, 

 for which I propose the generic name 

 Oecura, and which I shall specifically 

 designate by the name of its discoverer, 

 the earnest and talented explorer, Rev. 

 Dr. Good, to whom I have in recent 



* Probably more correctly referred to the Liparidae. 



years been indebted for many notable 

 acquisitions to my collection. I also 

 append the description of two new 

 species of Anaphe, from the tropical 

 West Coast of Africa, A. clara, mihi, 

 and A. subsordida, mihi {vide infra). 

 The first reference which I have been 

 able to find to the curious habit to which 

 I have made allusion is in an article com- 

 municated by Dr. Ch. Coquerel to the 

 Entomological society of France at its 

 meeting held Dec. 13, 1854, and pub- 

 lished in the Annales for the year iS^.f 

 He alludes to the great cocoons as well 

 known objects, "On connaissait depuis 

 longtemps ces grandes poches de soie 

 qui garnissent souvent toutes les branches 

 principales de plusieurs arbres de Mada- 

 gascar appartenant pour la plupart a 

 la famille de Legumineuses {Sutria\ 

 ISIadagascariensis, JSlhtiosa Lebbek, 

 etc.) mais on n'avait jamais decrit les 

 insectes qui forment ces cocons, avec 



f Observations entomologiques sur divers insectes 

 recueillis a Madagascar. 5me partie. Tar M. le Dr- 

 Ch. Coquerel, Annales de la Soc. ent. de Fiance, 3me 

 serie, vol. iii , p. 529 el seq. 



X Intsia Mudagascariensis. " Sutrt'a" is a misprint. 



