67 



the outside, but being elastic allows the pupa to protrude itself 

 without difficulty when the moth is ready to come forth. The case 

 of Pai/che opaci'lla is very similar, and when adorned with furze 

 needles and attached to a furze bush, is almost impossible of 

 detection, as may be seen by one of those exhibited. 



Among the smaller phycids, which practically all make interesting 

 cases, it will be sufficient to mention three examples. That of 

 TaUvporia tnbulosa {pseudo-boiiibijcella), is a tough silken tube about 

 three-quarters of an inch (18mm.) in length and some 2mm. only 

 in diameter, dusted all over with minute fragments of lichen. 

 Those of Fuwea crassiorella and Epiclowpten/x reticella are both 

 adorned with pieces of grass stem of irregular lengths, placed 

 lengthwise, giving them as uninsect-like an appearance as one can 

 well imagine. (See Plate VII.) 



Among the tortrices there is just one species to which I must 

 refer. 



The larva of Retinea resinella appears to spend its earliest stages 

 as a miner in the shoots of the Scots pine [Pinus sylveHtris), but at 

 some period, while still young, it taps the bark of the shoot, causing 

 the resinous sap to flow. This, as it congeals, the larva fashions 

 into a nodule about an inch in diameter, hollowing out the inside, 

 possibly by feeding on the congealed sap. When about to 

 pupate the larva spins a tube of soft tough silk from bottom to top 

 of the nodule, the lower extremity resting on the inside of the_ 

 bottom close to the shoot, while the top of the tube is just within 

 the upper shell of the nodule at a short distance from the shoot, 

 and the shell is here eaten away very thin. In this tube the larva 

 turns to a pupa which, when the moth is about to emerge, thrusts 

 itself through the wall of the nodule at the thinned spot, and the 

 moth is thus enabled to escape. The position of the nodule is 

 usually among the needles of the pine shoot, and it is of a very 

 tough consistency ; the pupal tube, in its almost central position, 

 within the tough walls of the nodule, is thus doubly well protected. 

 The coleophorids as a group are remarkable for their specialized 

 pupal cases, some being constructed of silk, others of pieces of leaf- 

 cuticle or it may be seed husk ; so diverse are these cases in form 

 and general appearance that in the case of some of the closely 

 allied species, in which the imagines are practically alike, they form 

 an easy method of differentiation. In a group so numerous as the 

 Coleophora it is manifestly impossible to even mention the peculi- 

 arities of all their pupal cases, but perhaps a couple of examples 

 will be sufficient as an illustration of the general methods of con- 

 struction. Coleophora vibicella commences its larval life as a miner 

 in the leaves of Genista tinctoria ; after a while it comes out of the 

 leaf and constructs a silken case, in shape, as Stainton aptly says, 

 not unlike a nautilus shell, in which it wanders about on the plant 

 to feed. As the larva grows it increases the size of its case by con- 

 tinuing what we may describe as the mouth of the nautilus shell in 



