129 



" The female, after fertilization, withdraws herself within 

 the case, and deposits her eggs at the bottom of the old pupa 

 skin, where they remain until the young are hatched. I 

 could not ascertain how many days the eggs remained there 

 before the young appeared, but should think about ten or 

 twelve, probably varying somewhat according to the heat of 

 the weather. The old pupa skin remains in the case after 

 the appearance of the young larva ; but I could not find any 

 trace of the skin of the female imago, and I am inclined to 

 think that it is eaten by the young larvae. From some of 

 mine the young larvae swarmed out of the case at the emergent 

 end, which, I may here remark, is the reverse of the feeding 

 end. Others I cut open, and released the young larvae; they 

 were at once very active, and moved quickly about, the bodies 

 held at an angle of 45°. I could not see that they used any 

 prolegs ; locomotion was effected entirely by their true legs. 

 They at once begun to make themselves cases, and in three 

 or four hours were all furnished with clothing; for this 

 purpose I supplied them with fine strips of heath and small 

 pieces of moss. Although generally found on heath, they 

 seem in their earlier stages to prefer more succulent food, 

 such as bramble, strawberry, whitethorn, and sloe. 



'• During the whole of last winter I had some fifty larvae, 

 collected in 1890, the produce of the eggs of 1889, feeding on 

 my lawn, under a large framework covered with net in the 

 usual manner. They were quite unaffected by the severity 

 of the winter, and almost all survived till the spring ; but it 

 is a singular fact, that although they had been protected 

 from enemies for more than a year, yet many of them pro- 

 duced ichneumons, which must have lived in their hosts since 

 July, 1890, at least. The females, if removed from the cases, 

 are the most helpless imagines I ever saw, far more so than 

 Psyche nitidella ; they have neither eyes, mouth, antennae, 

 legs, or wings, and merely wriggle very slightly, and con- 

 tinually make an annular constriction of their bodies, which 

 slowly passes down from the head to the extremity of the 

 abdomen. Although in this country there are several species 

 of Heterocera in which the female is apterous, yet in all 

 these instances the legs are developed, and some traces of 

 the wings, except in Psyche, are found. In no case is an 

 apterous male known ; but I saw, nearly fifty years ago, a 

 moth taken by Mr. Darv/in in Kerguelen's Island, which was 

 apterous in both sexes." 



Mr. J. Jenner Weir also exhibited Pyravieis degeerii, Godt. 

 and remarked that it would be seen that the male was 



K 



