64 



spicuous object, no attempt being made at concealment, its tough- 

 ness evidently being relied upon for the preservation of the enclosed 

 pupa. 



Eutricha [Lasiocanipa) qnercifolia, on the other hand, appears to 

 take some pains to hide its cocoon, a somewhat loose structure of 

 material closely resembling the last named, by placing it in the thick 

 of a hedge or bush often near the ground. It is not often that one 

 has the chance of seeing the cocoon of L. ilicifolia in this country ; 

 but it will be seen by those now exhibited, part of a very small brood 

 recently reared by Mr. Newman, that they are of similiarly tough 

 material ; and in a state of nature one would expect them to be 

 constructed among the branches of bilberry {Vacdninm myrtillns), 

 on which the larva feeds, or possibly on the ground between the 

 stems of the plant. (See Plate Y., fig. 5.). 



The Dicranuras build very special " habitations " for their pups, 

 the hardest and perhaps the best concealed of any that have come 

 under my notice. Dicrannra viniila, the largest species of the genus, 

 makes an exceedingly tough cocoon, so bard that it is with difficulty 

 that the point of a penknife can be made to penetrate it. In its con- 

 struction a large portion of the larval " silk " appears to be deposited 

 as a flaky material, in appearance not unlike thin sheet gelatine, 

 interwoven with numerous strands of silken thread ; the inside of 

 the cocoon is brought to an even, smooth finish, but the outside is 

 left somewhat uneven and has numerous pieces of the material on 

 which it is conscructed worked into it. Its most frequent position 

 is on the trunk of the tree on which the larva has fed, and often the 

 position chosen is in some depression in the bark, where, by reason 

 of the pieces of the surrounding bark and the bits with which the 

 larva decorates it, it becomes an object very difficult of detection. 

 The cocoons of the other species are much the same in appearance, 

 but it may be their somewhat smaller size or perhaps even greater 

 care in the selection of position and construction that makes them 

 even more effectually hidden. (See Plate lY., fig. 3, and Plate VI., 

 fig. 3). 



On one occasion I found a freshly emerged imago of D. bifida in 

 my garden, at rest on a stake within a few inches of the stem of a 

 poplar tree on which I felt convinced the larva had fed. On the 

 assumption that " where there is one there is more," I at once 

 made a careful search of the poplar trunk in the hope of finding 

 further cocoons, but without result. In the course of a few days, 

 however, I found another imago on almost the same spot, but it 

 was not until the leaves were off the tree in the autumn, when 

 consequently a brighter light fell on the trunk, that I found the 

 empty cocoons, and probably I should not have detected them even 

 then, so exactly did they match the surrounding parts of the trunk, 

 except for the holes made in them by the emergence of the 

 imagines. 



£). bicuspis furnishes, if possible, an even better example of a 



I 



