116 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



mating with the male. With regard to egg-laying, I 

 cannot say for certain whether eggs are deposited by the 

 females of these insects or not ; but the bodies of the 

 females contain vast numbers of eggs. The larval 

 sacks or cases are open at both ends, the male caterpillar 

 coming sufficiently out of the anterior aperture to use 

 its three pairs of thoracic legs for locomotion when 

 feeding. 



It usually fixes a part to the edge of the aperture by 

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

 alarmed, it can suddenly withdraw completely within 

 the case, when it remains with the aperture so completely 

 closed up that, if the nature of the object was not known, 

 it would never be suspected to contain a vigorous and 

 voracious grub or larva. 



The young larvae of these case moths are curious 

 little creatures, and in the early stages are very minute. 

 I well remember a circumstance which happened many 

 years ago. I had a box containing a number of these 

 stick-nests of both sexes, and these I had placed for 

 safety on a shelf about ten or twelve feet from the floor. 

 One evening I was busy arranging some insects in my 

 cabinet, when, on accidentally looking upwards towards 

 the shelf, I noticed a number of long silky threads 

 reaching from the shelf to the floor ; I was quite amazed, 

 and could not divine the source of such a singular 

 phenomenon, until it occurred to me to mount the steps 

 and look at my box ; and there, to my astonishment, I 

 found a constant stream of these tiny grubs, which were 

 so minute as to be scarcely perceptible. I then obtained 

 a glass-stoppered bottle, and held it directly under the 

 descending larvae, when in a short time I had it filled 

 with material not unlike the finest webs of the spider. 

 This is a most singular part of the economy of the 

 insect, as the young larvae at once begin to spin cases 

 for themselves, and commence to eat ravenously. 



The males of these stick-moths are hard to find, as, 

 after nearly fifty years of collecting, I have taken only 



