( {xxix }) 
threads to them, makes a slit in the roof of the cocoon, pushes 
them out, and then covers up the slit. The bubbles are thus 
pushed out as they are excreted from the hind end of the body. 
Each bubble is made up of several chambers.’ 
“T had noted the difference in the two accounts made 
independently at Pusa and Coimbatore, but had not made 
any further observations to see which was nght. It is always 
a drawback to have a common species to work with, as one 
is then inclined to put things off. Now I am glad to find that 
Green has made a third and again independent set of observa- 
tions. But the habits vary slightly in Ceylon by the attach- 
ment of the cocoon to posts, ete. Both in Bihar and in Madras 
I have almost invariably found that the larva makes its cocoon 
on the leaves of its food-plant. 
“J had seen your previous note about the parasitic-cocoon- 
like structures on the pupa of Deilemera, and it at once struck 
me that the cocoon of HL. chalybacma was perhaps a parallel 
case, though I rather doubt whether the pupa is parasitised 
to any extent. Possibly the anal excretion is simply composed 
of waste products of metabolism thrust outside the cocoon 
to get rid of them. The larva itself is parasitised fairly 
freely.” 
Concerning Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher’s last suggestion Prof. 
Povutton said that it was to him impossible to explain the 
elaborate procedure of the larva as merely due to the necessity 
for the extrusion of waste products. The whole process was 
an instinct of the most complex and nicely-adjusted kind, wholly 
unnecessary for the mere purpose of extrusion. He thought 
that the hypothesis of Mr. Edward Meyrick, F.R.S., was a 
very probable one, namely that “the cocoon suggests the 
appearance of a batch of empty eggshells’ (“‘ Exotic Micro- 
lepidoptera,” vol. i, 1912, p. 22). It was to be noted, however, 
that the suggestion of parasites might be a protection even to 
species that were not habitually killed in this manner, because 
such a method of destruction was so exceedingly common in 
nature. Mr. J. H. Durrant had informed him that so far the 
life-history of Hpicephala chalybacma is unknown—the larvae 
have only been found hanging on threads—and he had suggested 
that they mine under the bark of twigs or the young branches 
