236 Siebold's Remarks on 



of certain species of Psyche had produced young without pre- 

 vious copulation (sine hicina) has compelled me to examine these 

 communications more rigorously ; and I chose for investigation 

 Psyche Graminella and Fumea nitidella. 



I soon convinced myself by investigation, that most of the as- 

 sertions that the Psychidce could propagate sine concubitu origi- 

 nated in delusions. I have further explained the errors lying at 

 the bottom of these delusions in the " Zeitschrift fur vvissenschaft- 

 liche Zoologie" (Bd. I. 1849, p. 93). 



After I had made known my opinion upon this point, I again 

 continually received, from various quarters, intimations that in cer- 

 tain Psychidce, which were collected as larvae and taken care of, a 

 propagation sine lucina must have taken place, since from such 

 larvae, after they had gone into pupae, only females had emerged 

 which had laid eggs, from which afterwards larvae had certainly 

 come. 



These communications, however, mostly referred to Talceporia 

 lichenella, Zell., and I now turned my whole attention to the Talce- 

 porice, for which the abundant occurrence of the Tal. lichenella at 

 Freiburg in Breisgau, my former abode, was very useful. Un- 

 fortunately I was interrupted in these investigations by my re- 

 moval from Freiburg to Breslau ; yet I had prevailed on Herr 

 Reutti, who had undertaken these investigations in company with 

 me at Freiburg, to pursue our observations further. He has faith- 

 fully communicated to me the further success of these observa- 

 tions, and so I am now in a condition to announce with certainty, 

 that the Talceporia lichenella, Zell., is subject to a change of genera- 

 tion, or rather, that the Talceporia lichenella, Zell., is a sexless ?iurse, 

 since the larvae of this case-bearer produce nothing but females, 

 and always only again females, which, sine concubitu, lay eggs, from 

 which afterwards larvae actually escape. Apparently these wing- 

 less individuals of Tal. lichenella with ovipositors do not correspond 

 to females, but to the sexless nurses of a species of Talceporia, sub- 

 ject to alternation of generation. How many generations of these 

 nurses follow one another, till at last a sexual generation occurs, 

 has not yet been ascertained. 



We must, in the first place, endeavour to find out the sexual 

 form of this Tafcep. lichenella, since although Zeller(see Isis, 1838, 

 p. 718, 1839, p. 182 and 302) quotes as a synonyme to this case- 

 bearer the Psyche triquetrella of Fischer von Roslerstamm, it is 

 not yet ascertained whether both the forms truly belong to the 

 same species. I know the male and female of this Talceporia 



