EMBIA MAJOR FEOM THE HIMALAYAS. 189 



nevertheless Embiidse nourish in those regions. Melander (1902, p. 22) believes that 

 the tunnels probably serve merely as a retreat. 



Individuals placed in captivity are at first agitated, but they very soon settle down 

 and become seemingly adapted to new surroundings. On June 5th three females were 

 taken from three separate nests and placed iu a glass phial closed with a cork stopper. 

 When examined two hours after capture they had spun a straggling silken tunnel and 

 were reposing within it. On another occasion a captive male was observed to have 

 already commenced manufacturing its tunnel within half an hour of its being captured. 

 During the process of weaving these tunnels the fore-legs are in active motion, the insect 

 at the same time occasionally turning about on the long axis of its body. In order to 

 construct the roof of its tunnel it turns over on to its back, presenting its ventral surface 

 towards the observer. Newly hatched larva?, when removed from the proximity of the 

 parent female, were observed to weave tunnels with equal facility to older individuals. 

 Insects in the act of spinning were observed with the aid of a Zeiss binocular microscope, 

 which allows of their movements being tolerably readily followed. The silk is extruded 

 at the apices of long glandular hairs situated on the ventral surface of the enlarged first 

 tarsal joint of the anterior pair of legs. These threads are extremely fine and can only 

 be observed when the Embiids are retained in a glass vessel lined on the bottom with 

 non-glazed black paper. The fact that a number of such threads are produced simul- 

 taneously accounts for the rapidity with which these insects weave their tunnels. 

 I hope to publish in a later paper the results of a prolonged series of observations 

 dealing with the much debated problem of the mechanism of silk production in the 

 Embiida?. A full discussion of this subject will be found in the memoirs of Grassi and 

 Sandias (1S98, Appendix II. p. 62), llimsky-Korsakow (1910, p. 153), Krauss (1911, 

 p. 15), and Enderlein (1912, p. 12). 



Maternal care on behalf of the ova and young larvae is strongly exhibited by the 

 females, in very much the same manner as has been long known to occur among 

 the Dermaptera from the observations of Erisch, De Geer, Xanibeu, Green, and others. 

 The female Embia major shows very marked solicitude for the welfare of her offspring 

 after her first few eggs have been deposited. She takes up her position in close 

 proximity to the ova and usually concealing them, so far as possible, by means of 

 her body. If alarmed and driven away, she returns sooner or later to take up the same 

 attitude. When the young larvae are hatched they remain around the parent female, 

 who conceals them, so far as she is able, by means of her body, very much after the 

 same manner as a hen guarding her brood of cbickens. A female and her brood were 

 kept in a small glass trough and observed daily living in intimate association. When 

 separated from the parent the larvae were observed the next day to have regained their 

 former position. As the larvae approach their second stage in growth (p. 182), they 

 exhibit a tendency to wander away from the female and construct small tunnels for 

 themselves. They are markedly social, the whole of a brood living together within a 

 complex silken meshwork of tubes. 



Embia major was found to be both easy to rear and observe in captivity. Females 

 were kept in crystallising dishes such as are used by chemists, and measuring 10 inches 



