1 12 OIKETICUS EIRBYI. 



only by accident that a specimen, uncased after the 

 rupture of the thoracic carina, cleared up the mys- 

 tery. When the pupa had slept the appointed 

 time, the animal, still resident within the habita- 

 culum formed by the larva, was found to open the 

 carina by the motion of its head, and prepare to 

 receive the winged male. Here, therefore, we have 

 an animal which in its adult state is for ever ex- 

 cluded from the light, and never even beholds the 

 mate to which it is indebted for its progeny. After 

 impregnation, the female begins to fill the bottom 

 of its puparium with her ova, closely packed in the 

 down rubbed from her body, and having performed 

 this duty, either presses herself through the thoracic 

 carina, reduced to a shrivelled morsel of dried and 

 scarcely animated skin, or dies within the case.* 



The eggs are rounded, small, and yellow, and 

 exist in very great numbers. As soon as hatched, the 

 larvae force their way out of the puparium, spread 

 themselves over the tree, and commence to prepare 

 a habitation even before they have taken food. 

 This habitaculum is cylindrical, open at both ends, 

 and strengthened by small pieces of wood, gnawed 

 leaves, &c. held together by interwoven threads. 

 Under its protection the larva moves about much in 

 the same manner as takes place with the Phryga- 

 nidae. When young the tail is borne erect, but it 

 soon becomes horozontal owing to the weight of the 

 incumbent mass. The larva is thick and fleshy 

 with broad black feet, the three pectoral pairs very 

 * Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 372. 



