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XIV. The NaiiU'cil History of Oiketicus^, a new and singn/ar 

 Genus of Lepidoptera. By the Ixcv. Lansdozon Guilding, B.A. 

 F.L.S. 



Read June 6, 1826. 



I BECAME acquainted with the animals here described on my 

 return to the West Indies in 1817 : but though these interesting 

 creatures have been attentively studied since that period, I have 

 only within a few days been enabled to complete their history. 

 There appeared so much of novelty in the structure of their 

 females, that I was unwilling to present any notice on the sub- 

 ject to the Linnean Society till all doubts had been removed. 

 The larvae being common on many of our trees, a considerable 

 number were bred ; but I was always disappointed in my expec- 

 tations of discoverino- the female insect. The male at the stated 

 period made its appearance ; but I never dreamt that its un- 

 wieldy and almost motionless partner was to be searched for in 

 the puparium, which it was destined never to desert. Judging 

 from other insects, I hastily imagined that the female pupa had 

 not been fully developed in consequence of the attacks of para- 

 sitic Ichneumonldce. It was only by accident that a specimen 

 uncased after the rupture of the thoracic carina, cleared up the 

 mystery. When the pupa has slept the appointed time, the 

 animal still resident within the habitaculum formed by the 

 larva, opens the carina by the motion of its head, and prepares 

 to receive the winged male. Here again, another difficulty pre- 

 sented itself. I was unable to ascertain how the sexual union 



* Nomen ab olurjTiKoç, qui habitaculum quarere solet. 



could 



