26 BRITISH LEPIDOPTEBA. 



astonished to find young black caterpillars in the box, instead of the 

 eggs. His communication to the Leopoldine Academy of Naturalists 

 shows that he was satisfied that copulation had not taken place. In 

 1772, Bernoulli recorded that Baster had obtained fertile eggs from an 

 isolated female of Gastropacha qiierdfolia, that had been bred from a 

 caterpillar ; and further, that a caterpillar of Episema (Diloba) caendeo- 

 cephala, having changed to a pupa, the latter was left in a closed box, 

 and that, about fifteen days after, he was surprised, on opening the 

 box, to find, besides the enclosed moth, a family of young caterpillars, 

 which had already devoured the pupa-case of their mother, and a 

 portion of their own egg-shells. Denis and Schiffermuller pointed 

 out, in 1776 (Syst. Verz. der Schmett. der Wiener Gey end, etc., p. 293) 

 that these cases were possibly errors of observation ; whilst Von 

 Scheven considered that the larv were probably from eggs laid by 

 another female moth, previously confined in the same box. 



Siebold, being very dissatisfied with what was known about the 

 subject, turned his attention to the " case-bearers," Solenobia lichendla 

 and S. triquetrella, and during the years 1850-1852 (the date of 

 Jourdan's experiments on B. mori) he collected several hundred cases. 

 None but females emerged from these cases, and they commenced almost 

 immediately to lay eggs. They " possessed such a violent impulse to 



lay their eggs, that, when I removed them from their cases 



they let their eggs fall openly. If I had wondered at the zeal for 

 oviposition in these husbandless Solenobia, how was I astonished when 

 all the eggs of these females, of whose virgin state I was most positively 

 convinced, gave birth to young caterpillars, which looked about with 

 the greatest assiduity in search of materials for the manufacture of 

 little cases ! " Parthenogenetic reproduction in Solenobia lichenella 

 had also been observed by Wocke and Keutti. For many years the 

 female of Apterona crenulella (Psyche helir] only was known, and 

 Siebold, to make sure that none of the " wingless and footless moths " 

 were males, dissected many. He satisfied himself that all were females, 

 and their unfertilised eggs were found to develop larvae in the same 

 year. 



In 1795, Constans de Castellet, general inspector of the silk 

 industry in Sardinia, had reported to Reaumur that he had reared 

 caterpillars from unfertilised eggs of Bombyx mori. " Ex nihilo nihil 

 fit," was Reaumur's sceptical reply. Herold, in 1838, reported that 

 amongst the unfertilised eggs of B. mori, some here and there passed 

 wholly or partially through the same changes as fertilised eggs, 

 although they failed to hatch, and he distinguishes (Dis. de anim. vert, 

 caren. in ovo formatione, Fasc. ii., 1838, Tab. 7, fig. 31) between the fffitus 

 developed from fecundated, and that developed from unfecundated eggs, 

 the former escaping as a larva, whilst the latter perishes in the egg- 

 shell. He distinguished readily, also, various degrees of the faculty 

 of development of unfertilised eggs, which manifested themselves by 

 infinite differences in the disposition, number, form, and strength of 

 the coloured portions of the egg. Herold was able to extract a fo3tus 

 from one of these unfertilised eggs in the middle of winter. According 



* The male of Apterona crenulella (Psyche helix) was re-discovered by Clauss. 

 He described and figured the larval case of the male, the difference between the 

 pupae of the sexes, and the male imago in Zeits. Weiss. Zool., xvii., p. 470. Until 

 then it does not seem to have been noticed since the time of Reaumur. 



