1888.] E. T. Aikmson—Neiv or little Imoicn Indian Rhynchota. 337 



insect has a life of some weeks in the larval state and never shows itself 

 outside the tube until it is ready to assume the perfect state. Then the 

 pupa comes out tail first, and takes up a position on the top of the tube 

 (transversely like the letter T) and in the middle of the bubbles. In 

 about ten minutes it completely extricates itself from its old skin and 

 the curved horn on its thorax seems to uncurl. 



The c? appears to be considerably smaller and of a darker colour. 

 The full sized larva-tubes are about half an inch long and about a 

 line in diameter. They are about the thickness of writing-paper, of a 

 dirty whitish colour, with the surface finely transversely wrinkled. 

 The basal portion is dilated and curved so as partially to clasp the twig 

 on which it is fixed. In this manner the bottom of the tube is closed 

 and, as the insect resides in it with the head downwards, Mr. Westwood 

 remarks : " I do not understand how it can obtain nourishment from 

 the plant through its delicate rostrum, unless it occasionally emerges 

 from its abode which, of course, is stationary." The immature insect 

 differs from the imago in the usual manner, having the wings only visible 

 in a rudimental condition in the pupa state, in which the only appearance 

 of the large curved dorsal horn is seen in a very small dorsal protaberauce 

 in the middle of the hind part of the thorax. 



Mr. Westwood observes that the water expelled by these insects is 

 of the same nature as the 'cuckoo-spit' of the English AphropJiora spu- 

 maria, being the fluid excrement of the larva, consisting of the juices of 

 the plant on Avhich it subsisted, and which, being discharged, witli very 

 little alteration in its nature, drop by drop, from the anus of the insect, 

 forms an accumulated moistened mass which keeps the body of tlie insect 

 in a moist condition until it is ready to assume the perfect state. The 

 insect does no injury to the tree or to the branch on which it feeds. 



Mr. F. Ratte (in Proc. Linn. Soc. N". S. Wales, ix, p. 1164, 1885) 

 describes the occurrence of similar larva-cases in Australia. He shows 

 that these cases contain three-fourths of carbonate of lime, some beino- 

 helicoidal and others conical, resembling some fossil and recent Serpulop: 

 The conical are usually found on Eucalyptus, the opening turned up- 

 wards and the larva being jDlaced in it with the head downwards. In 

 the helicoidal shells, the insect lies horizontally for the greatest part 

 of its larval life. In both instances, it follows that the larva presents 

 its tail to the opening, instead of its head. It introduces its rostrum 

 through a longitudinal slit into the bark of the stem on which the case 

 is fixed [but in the cases before me I have not been able to discover the 

 slit] and emits at intervals from its anus a drop of clear water at the 

 entrance of the shell. 



Specimens of the Ceylon and Indian tubes arc deposited in the 

 Indian Museum. 

 44 



