Entomological Notes. 435 



internal parasite. In like manner we cannot suppose the 

 connecting cord to have been a previous sloughed skin of 

 the Lepidopterous larva, as there would have been no 

 means of attaching one end of the slough to the dorsum 

 of the abdomen of the Euryhrachis, although the other 

 end might have been firmly held by the anal prolegs of 

 the larva. Mr. Wood-Mason's suggestion that the con- 

 necting cord is the case which the larva had spun for its 

 residence, and of which it had firmly affixed the basal 

 extremity (out of which the head of the larva must at that 

 time have protruded) to the body of the Euryhraclds, 

 after doing Avhich it had turned itself round in its case as is 

 the manner of the larvas of the Oiketici, Psyche and other 

 sack-tragers, and pushed itself quite out of the distal 

 extremity of the case on being plunged into spirits, 

 holding firmly by its ])rolegs to the distal exti-emity of the 

 case. (See Proc. Ent. Soc. Oct. 3rd, 1877.) 



The question then arises (and is applicable also to 

 Epipyrops), Avhat is the real condition of the relationship 

 between the Ilomopteron and its supposed parasite ? In 

 Fulyora and Aplicena there is a dense supply of the waxy 

 matter upon which I have assumed that the Lepidopterous 

 larva had fed, as do the larvas of Galleria, upon the wax 

 of the honey-comb, leaving the Homopteron itself un- 

 touched and entire, but the Euryhrachis before us (in 

 spirit) shows no sign of the waxy secretion. I believe, 

 however, that this insect really does secrete the wax, and 

 that all trace of it is here lost by immersion in the spirit 

 which has dissolved it, as I am aware has been the case 

 with other wax-secreting insects which I have immersed 

 in spirit. In reply to the suggestion that tlie waxen 

 secretion is simply used by the parasites of the Fulyora 

 and AphcBna for the formation of its case, I would observe 

 that there are many insects which make use of the mate- 

 rials on which they feed for the formation of their move- 

 able cases, as is done by the larva of the common clothes- 

 or cai'pet-moth, which uses the wool on which it feeds for 

 this purpose, or by the Lyda of the rose, the larva of 

 which makes its case of a strip of the same leaf, on the 

 remains of which it then feeds. Mr. Wood-Mason, on 

 the contrary, thinks these arc cases of commensalism, 

 and that the Lepidopterous larva makes use of the 

 Ilomopteron to trans])ort it from place to place, and that 

 on arriving at the plant Avhich is its favourite food it 

 partially leaves its companion, and, after eating its fill on 



