TALEPORIA TUBULOSA. 



221 



Although in old cases only minute pieces of stone and lichen are 

 attached to the outside of the case, yet in fresh cases there appear to 

 he innumerable scraps of chitin and organic remains. The loose silk, 

 seen in cases that have been detached, is, therefore, at the end by which 

 the case is attached when in the pupal condition, the moth emerging from 

 the valvular end. [Described April 3rd, 1899, from cases collected by 

 Hamm at Wellington College] . Zeller notes that the immature case 

 bears on its front half powdered particles of lichen, and it is, as far as 

 the anterior end, three-cornered, and shows three moderately sharp 

 edges. It narrows from the head outwards to the tip. The mature 

 case is somewhat different, 8'" long, tubular, somewhat thinned 

 towards both ends, more so towards the three-valved anal end. From 

 just before the centre three edges become somewhat conspicuous, each 

 running back to the depression between two of the terminal "valves," 

 or " flaps." The colour is grey mixed with brown, the upper surface 

 covered with particles of dirt, which increase in number and size 

 towards the anterior end, and are here mixed with minute pieces of 

 devoured insects. Bacot says that near the anterior opening of the 

 adult case there is a kind of necklet, formed of sundry scraps of insect 

 debris, corneous plates, appendage-covers, cast heads, &c, probably 

 from the exuvia of the larva itself, others certainly extraneous (in one 

 case the elytra of a small beetle) , but these are comparatively few com- 

 pared with the number of similar pieces used by I), hcrminata. The 

 opening from which the larva protrudes its head is somewhat ventral 

 in position. 



Comparison of the cases of T. tubulosa and T. politella. — The case 

 of T. tubulosa is a little smaller and less smooth than that of T. politella, 

 but it is so near that it is difficult to distinguish them. That of T. 

 tubulosa, however, has, throughout its length, three slight ridges, which 

 give it a slightly triangular form, whilst in T. politella only one is 

 noticeable, and that slightly (Bruand). According to Ochsenheimer 

 the case of T. politella " is of the same shape, size and colour as that of 

 T. tubulosa, only generally rather brighter, less covered with dirt, and 

 towards the head end with three distinct edges." The difference in the 

 appearance of cases of the same species is often due to the external 

 material having been more or less removed. 



Habits of larva. — The young larva? hatch in July (from eggs laid 

 June 21st, 1860, larvae appeared July 11th), and immediately make 

 cases of the down with which the eggs are enveloped. Later, Ver 

 Huell says, they use particles of moss, &c. Freer says that when 

 newly hatched the larva? are extremely lively, making for themselves a 

 minute but almost perfectly cylindrical case, refusing in confinement to 

 feed on lichens, and in nature never ascending the trees (on Cannock 

 Chase) until March ; they pupate in May (from beginning to middle of 

 the month), and appear not to feed at all during the last month of their 

 existence, for there never seems any difference in size between the early 

 and later collected cases. The larva is rather rare in alternate years, 

 and may possibly take two years to come to maturity ; the cases 

 abounded in 1895 and 1897. In Silesia, the larvae live somewhat gre- 

 gariously in old open firwoods, at the foot of thick trunks, on the 

 lichens that cover the soil round the same. Sometimes they are so 

 abundant that many cases may be found round almost every fir. It 

 also lives in damp places, and one birch-trunk on the marshy ground 



