500 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
case or sac, from the imperfectly closed aboral or free end of which the 
caterpillar had suddenly withdrawn itself (the case-bearers, as well known, 
readily being able to turn in their cases) on immersion in alcohol, and on 
which its anal pair of prolegs had closed in their death-grasp. The end of 
the cord fastened firmly to the back of the Homopteron being the oral or 
attached end of that case; i.¢., the end by which the case-bearers fasten 
themselves when at rest to the twigs and branches of the plants on which 
they live, the attachment being quite as firm, or even firmer, than that 
of the present specimens. Mr. Wood-Mason’s view of the nature of the rela- 
tion of the caterpillar to the Homopteron in all these cases had always been 
that the former is the messmate of the latter rather than its parasite, merely 
making use of it as a vehicle whereon to reach its vegetable food, just as in the 
curious case recently brought to notice by Fritz Miiller (‘ Nature,’ vol. xv., 
p- 264), and employing—as Colonel Godwin-Austen’s valuable note on the 
specimen found by him on Aphena, sp., and his own examination of that 
specimen in its cocoon seemed conclusively to prove—some of its messmate’s 
wax to cover its body (and in some instances for the construction of a case), 
in order probably to render itself less conspicuous to its enemies (Ichneu- 
monida@, Tachinidae, &c.) than it would be as a naked, fleshy, yellowish grub 
upon the white wax-covered surface of its messmate’s body. He had opened 
the flattened squarish cocoon constructed by Col. Austen’s specimen, and 
found the body of the enclosed caterpillar still clothed thickly on its upper 
surface with the satiny asbestos-like waxy substance secreted by its mess- 
mate. This specimen was probably identical with Professor Westwood’s 
Epipyrops, while the one from Bangalore represented a different but closely- 
allied form, distinguished in the larval condition by the presence of a 
well-developed case, which may or may not have been rendered -less 
conspicuous by a covering of wax borrowed from its homopterous ‘“ chum.” 
With reference to the firmness of the attachment of the cord to the back 
of the Homopteron, Mr. Jenner Weir reminded the Society that the larvee 
of Psyche were always most firmly fixed, and Mr. M‘Lachlan stated that 
the larvee of Phryganea glued down their cases with great firmness under 
water. 
Mr. W. L. Distant raised the question as to whether the Homopteron 
frequented the plants on which the caterpillar fed or whether the latter 
was omnivorous. 
Prof. Westwood also mentioned a small dingy moth from Brazil, of 
which numbers had been found upon the Three-fingered Sloth, Bradypus 
tridactylus. 
Mr. Meldola exhibited a collection of Lepidoptera, from Ceylon and 
the Nicobar Islands, formed by him in 1875. Among them were a few 
species new to science. The collection had recently been worked out by 
Mr. F. Moore, 
