(10-4 [xxi 
these in a form at all comparable with those of their relatives 
on the other side of the Pacific. As I have before suggested 
(Trans. Ent, Soc. Lond., 1904, p. 303), it seems not at all 
unlikely that the common larval habitation of Pontia (Aporia) 
erategi, rudimentary as it is, and belonging only to the early 
larval stages, may be a degenerate or undeveloped form of 
the elaborate silken nest constructed by the not very 
widely-removed Lucheira socialis.” 
Dr. W. J. Hotann, of Pittsburg, Pa., U.S.A., said that 
although he had been a Fellow of the Society for many years, 
this was the first meeting which he had ever attended, and he 
regarded it as a rather peculiar coincidence that the subject 
under discussion should be one from the study of which he 
himself had just freshly come. Continuing his remarks, Dr. 
Ho.tanp said :—“In the early part of the past winter, the 
president of one of the Mexican railways showed me some 
pieces of a white silken web, remarkably tough and durable, 
which represented the covering of what he called ‘a great 
cocoon, abundant on the branches of the ‘madrofia’ trees 
in the State of Durango, and always full of a multitude of 
caterpillars. I asked him to write at once to Mexico and 
request the superintendent of his railway to ship me a number 
of these silken bags. In due course of time I received a large 
erate filled with them, and, fortunately, when the bags 
arrived, the caterpillars having passed the final moult, some 
of them were already pupating, and I was able to watch the 
process. The butterflies subsequently emerged, and as I 
had imagined from the outset, the insect proved to be 
Eucheira socialis, Westw., the males appearing in advance 
of the females. Oviposition took place within the silken 
bags in a number of instances, the females not coming 
forth, and I noticed that a number of the females, which 
appeared to be sluggish in their movements, did not attain a 
perfect normal expansion of the wings, as if there were already 
a tendency toward the development of a weakly-winged or 
possibly an ultimate apterous form; a phenomenon which is 
well known in the case of the ‘bag-moths.’ This abortion of 
the wings, however, may have been purely an accident, but it 
was rather remarkable that while all the males emerged 
’ 
a 
