PSYCHIEES. 115 



As we have already stated, the males fly almost as soon as emer- 

 gence has taken place, and are so active that many species are worn 

 to shreds in an hour or two. They seek the females with great ardour 

 and " assemble " freely ; the Oiketicid males have been known to enter 

 the pupa-case to the utter ruin of their wings. Armitage exhibited 

 (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., ser. 3, vol. ii., pp 103-104) a case of Oiketicus 

 Icirbyi, into the "cap " of which three males had, at the same time, 

 inserted their abdomina, directly after its extremity had been opened 

 by a newly-emerged female. Heylaerts states that he has often 

 observed that, when a freshly emerged male recognises that a female 

 is near him, he pairs immediately without waiting for the expansion of 

 his wings. 



The manner of copulation in the Macro-Psychids was described 

 (Stett. Ent. Zeitung, 1844) by Mann. When a male has found 

 a case which has the free end open, thus showing that the female has 

 emerged, it fixes itself by means of its feet on the upper part of this 

 end. Elongating its abdomen, it introduces it into the opening, 

 pushes it beneath the venter of the female which presents its head 

 to him, and introduces the penis into the vagina. After some 

 minutes, copulation is finished, the male flies off to seek another 

 female, whilst the first immediately commences to lay her eggs in the 

 empty pupa-skin and in the case when the former is filled. The mode 

 of copulation varies considerably, however, in the different groups as 

 Ave have already shown, and whilst the vermiform females do not leave 

 the case for this purpose, the araneiform females pair on the outside of 

 the case, whither they crawl immediately on emergence. Bruand 

 erroneously states that the vermiform females turn round in the pupa- 

 case after emergence and expose the anal segments at the opening, 

 adding that whilst the female is awaiting the male, she re-enters the 

 case at the slightest disturbance. By the time that the female has 

 laid her eggs she is reduced to the smallest conceivable dimensions, 

 and most of the vermiform Psychids appear then to voluntarily leave 

 the case. Bruand notices that if copulation does not take place in a 

 few days, the female comes right out of the case, drops to the ground 

 and dies, an observation Avhich Ave have already affirmed. The fact 

 that the females are apterous Avould lead one to conclude that the 

 Psychid species may be very localised, and this is frequently so, Avhilst 

 the tendency is often intensified by the fact that the larvae Avalk sloAvly. 

 Bruand, hoAA'ever, notes that if a laiwa be disturbed Avhen Avalking, it 

 falls, and is often carried by the wind to a considerable distance before 

 reaching the ground ; he observes that Avhen he has been collecting 

 cases of Hyalina albida and Proutia salicolella, he has seen the cases 

 carried right aAA r ay by a sudden gust of AA'ind. 



Dyar concludes that the family must be of great age, and the Avide 

 distribution of its members, Avhich are found in all quarters of the 

 globe, confirms this vieAv. The generalised condition of the loAA r er 

 families of the stirps also supports this supposition and the suggested 

 alliance with the earliest branches of the Tineid stirps accentuates it. 

 It is practically the only superfamily of Lepidoptera in Avhich the 

 females of almost all the species are Avingless, yet Ave should not look 

 on this as eA^idence of generalisation, but rather as specialisation in its 

 highest sense, the females having been developed until they are little 

 more than huge bags of eggs. That the loAvest members of the 



