HUEBNER'S CASE MOTH 59 



CHAPTER LXXV. 



HUEBNER'S CASE MOTH. 



{Hyalarcta Huebneri, Westw.) 



Order : Lepidoptera. Family : Psychidce. 



These extraordinary insects, the males of which are 

 winged, the females being apterous or wingless, are well 

 represented in Australia, the Revision of the Family 

 PsychicUe, by Messrs. Meyrick and Lower, containing 

 descriptions of thirty species. The males, as our plate 

 shows, have transparent wings, with dark bodies and 

 yellowish antennae, the female being a fleshy grub- 

 looking creature devoid of wings, legs, or any properly 

 developed antennae. 



The females, according to Professor McCoy, " never 

 leave the case or cocoon, but after copulation bring forth 

 an abundance of eggs, and the newly-hatched larvae 

 lower themselves by a fine string silken thread, and at 

 once commence to each form a portable habitat for them- 

 selves, consisting of pieces of tea- tree {Leptospermum 

 laevigatum) , thin bark, &c. These larval cases (Figs. 

 II. and HA.) are just opened at the ends, and the larvae 

 protrude themselves just sufficiently out of the anterior 

 portion of the case to use their legs for locomotion, 

 generally fixing part of the edge of the aperture by fibres 

 of silk temporarily to the twig it is on, so that when 

 alarmed it withdraws completely within the larval case, 

 some of which latter are very strongly fastened together 

 by means of a silky substance, and which remains 

 suspended and quite closed." 



The larvae of these Case Moths are nearly all 

 ravenous feeders, and it is no unusual occurrence to find 

 hundreds of these tiny stick-enclosed grubs, which, 

 unless very carefully looked for, cannot be seen gnawing 



