isfti] 203 



Now the head is out straight, with a large drop of mucus all round it, 

 like a drop o£ water. Then it draws its head gently out of the mucus, 

 thus making a short fine thread from it. It then makes another drop, 

 and another short thread ; then a drop, and so on, until it has made 

 several of these pendants of beads, which vary in length. I have 

 seen them from one inch to four or five inches. I believe in caves 

 where there is no wind they reach the length of two feet. At night 

 when the larva is shining, you can see the reflection of the light for a 

 considerable distance along the main thread or tube. When it is in a 

 small cave, the light also reflects on the pendants of beads, thus 

 lighting up the whole of the cave. I call it the main tube, because 

 the larva does not rest on the thread, but glides through it, which can 

 easily be seen when the larva is in the centre of the thread, or tube, 

 and tries to get out through the side. Tou can see it pushing, and 

 moving its head about as if to break the side of the tube before it 

 gets out. 



It is my belief that the web is formed to entangle insects, which 

 are attracted by the light. 



The following are my reasons. I have frequently found small 

 Diptera, Ooleoptera, Lepidoptera, and a great many of the Crustacea 

 entangled in the sticky web of the larva (which is very strong). I 

 have also noticed that several of the Goleoptera, when taken out of the 

 webs, were hollow, showing that the interior had been extracted in 

 some way. When the insects are alive the larva may be seen smother- 

 ing them with mucus. On the 17th February, 1894, I saw that one 

 of the larvae had a Crustacean in the web. The larva's head was 

 thrust inside the shell of the Crustacean. I at once used the lens, and 

 could plainly see the mandibles working, and that the larva was eating 

 the animal. I blew the web gently, when the larva at once stopped 

 eating, but proceeded again. Again I blew, but harder, when it at 

 once retreated, taking the animal part of the way with it. There are 

 frequently fragments of insects to be seen stuck on the rocks at the 

 sides of the webs, as if, when a larva had finished with an insect, he 

 turned it out of the web and was ready for more. 



The ^ and ? can easily be distinguished in the pupa. In the 

 first place the ^ is much smaller, and not so stout, as the ? , and the 

 end of the ^ abdomen is very abrupt. On the other hand the ? is 

 much stouter, and the end of the abdomen comes to a point, and has 

 two small fans. 



Both larvffi and pupro are luminous, the ? being so in all three 

 stages. The J* is luminous in the pupa until the last two or three 

 days before it hatches. I have three males and none of them was 

 luminous in the imago. 



WullmgLou, N. Z. : May, 1891. 



