On Cocoons of the Genus Tricliostibas. 2?)1 



in Ferdita the maxillary blade far exceeds the palpus, ^vhile 

 the reverse is true iu Nomioides. If Perdita is related to 

 Nomioides, as suggested, we have a remarkable illustratiou 

 of the persistence of colour-patterns in the face of great 

 structural changes ; and as the different colour-types of 

 Nomioides can liardly have given rise separately to similar 

 types of Perdita, we have also an illustration of kaleidoscopic 

 variation^ the characters combining in various ways and 

 sorting out again, no doubt according to Mendelian principles. 

 A strong argument against the suggested relationship may 

 be based on the facial foveic of Perdita — certainly an 

 Audrenoid character. 



XXVII. — Notes on the Cocoons and Descriptions of Four new 

 ISpecies of the Genus Trichostibas. By EilBKlK Stkand, 

 of the B,oyal Berlin Zoological Museum. 



In his interesting paper on the geims Trichostibas (Proc, 

 U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. xxxviii. no. 1765, October 15, 1910) 

 Mr. August Busck describes, besides new species, also the 

 cocoons, referring to the previous accounts of these. I 

 should, however, like to point out that more and older 

 accounts of these cocoons exist in the literature, viz., in 

 Bates, ' Naturalist on the Amazons,' and in Bianchaitl, 

 ' Metamorpiioses, Moeurs et Instinctes des Insectes/ 2*^ edit. 

 1877. Bates figures and describes {I. c. p. 379 of the 

 German edition : Leipzig, Dyk'sche Buchhandlung, 186(5) 

 the cocoon and gives also a most interesting account of the 

 manner in which the larva manages to construct the net- 

 work of the cocoon. Bates gives his insect no name, but 

 regards it as belonging to the Lithosiidw, which is easily 

 explained through the great similitude of the moths of the 

 genus Trichostibas \o the Lithosiidse ; owing to this simili- 

 tude, Walsingham points out (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 181*7, 

 p. 115) that if Walker described the specimens of Tricho- 

 stibas fumosa Z., which probably are in the British Museum, 

 " he \\ ould be most likely to locate the species in the Litho- 

 siadjfi." Blanchard gives [1. c. p. 298) a figure of the cocoon, 

 which he ascribes to an " Alucita du Bresil." 



In the Royal Berlin Zoological Museum are several cocoons 

 of this kind, most of them belonging to the former Staudinger 

 Collection, now in the possession of the Museum. A few 

 remarks on these may not be without interest, as they differ 



