THE PSYCHID^. 313 



The perfect insects which emerge from these con- 

 cealed pupae are very distinct in their appearance ac- 

 cording to their sex. The male is an active little 

 creature, furnished with rather long and often fea- 

 thered antennae and with ample wings. The female, 

 on the contrary, is a grub-like creature, sometimes 

 provided with legs, antennae and eyes, but sometimes 

 destitute of all these organs, and presenting the 

 appearance of a mere maggot; in the latter case 

 she never quits the case in which she was born, but 

 remains in its interior until the male visits her, then 

 lays her eggs in her old pupa-skin, shrivels up, and 

 dies. Those females which are provided with organs 

 of motion, on the other hand, creep out of their cases, 

 and sitting quietly on the exterior, await the addresses 

 of their partners, and then availing themselves of the 

 extensibility of their abdomen, the terminal joints of 

 which are capable of being drawn out and in, like the 

 tube of a telescope, deposit their eggs either in the 

 interior of their old case or in the pupa-skin. In this 

 way they often completely fill their pupa-skins, so 

 that, when examined, they have every appearance of 

 still containing their original inhabitants; and the 

 evolution of young larvae from the eggs thus deposited 

 has undoubtedly, in some instances, given rise to the 

 opinion that the female Psychidae were capable of 

 reproduction without any connexion with the male. 



From the researches of Von Siebold, however, it 

 appears that this is actually the case in some species, 

 as several generations of female moths have been 

 reared by him in captivity, without a single male 

 making its appearance*. 



* See, for further particulars, " Siebold on a true Partheno- 



