LUFFIA FERCHAULTELLA. 249 



cases sent by Fletcher, in July, also hatched on August 14th. I am 

 quite certain that all these batches of eggs were unfertilised (Bacot). 

 Fletcher himself adds that he has over and over again proved to his 

 own satisfaction that the insect is parthenogenetic. He states that he 

 has taken them as larvae, kept them closely confined, has never bred a 

 $ , and yet, in due course, swarms of newly hatched larvae have been 

 observed in the breeding-cases. 



Egg-laying. — The eggs are packed inside the empty pupal-skin 

 (which is not protruded from the larval-case) , and are mixed with hairs 

 from the anal tuft. Oviposition seems almost always to take place in. 

 the early morning (6 a.m. -8 a.m.). Eggs laid on July 7th hatched 

 August 5th, on July 16th hatched August 12th, on July 14th hatched 

 August 14th. 



Ovum. — The eggs have a smooth surface, their colour whitish and 

 shiny, and they are broadly oval in outline ; exceedingly delicate and 

 easily ruptured (the touch of a camel-hair brush destroys them, and they 

 appear to be more delicate than the eggs of L. lapidella) ; large for the 

 size of the imago (almost as large as those of L. lapidella, but their 

 fragility prevents exact measurement) [Bacot. Described from Brox- 

 bourneeggs, July 9th, 1899] . The eggs appear as if varnished, covered 

 with fine hairs, length about -5mm., breadth about -375mm., great varia- 

 tion as to shape, some oval, others brick-shaped, some quite irregular 

 (Described from Fletcher's eggs July 15th, 1899). 



Case. — The case is composed of fine whitish silk, rather loosely 

 spun, so that it is soft and flexible ; covered on the outside with small 

 fragments of algae, lichen, and what appear to be particles of frass. 

 The cases are often parti-coloured, pale grey and dark green-grey 

 (almost black), whilst others are entirely dark greenish-grey or pale 

 grey. They are of the same form as those of L. lapidella from 

 Guernsey, conical, but curved towards apex. Their length varies from 

 4-75mm.-6mm. Found in crevices of the bark of old willow trees, at 

 Broxbourne (Bacot. Described June 11th, 1899). Apart from a 

 slight curve, the cases of this species are conical, expanding regularly 

 from the pointed apex to the open end. This form is preserved so 

 long as the larva is active ; when it is fixed up for pupation, the open 

 end is somewhat drawn together and contracted , and the case laid some- 

 what flattened to the bark, &c, and is not then so very different in 

 general aspect from that of S. lichenella, to which previously it bore no 

 resemblance whatever (Chapman). 



Habits of larva. — -The young larva, after the fashion of those of 

 most Macro-Psychids when young, walks with its abdominal segments 

 raised in the air, even when removed from its case ; the latter is 

 always raised considerably when the larva is walking, although the 

 angle varies greatly according to the character of the surface and its 

 position. Whittle observes that at Bowers-Gifford, cases that were 

 spun and contained pupae on July 14th, 1899, were found firmly 

 attached to the wood forming the fences and not to the lichens thereon. 

 He further notes that the lichens and scrapings (from the fence on 

 which this species occurred) placed at the bottom of a fern-case, 

 yielded, on August 6th, 1899, scores of young larvae, many of which 

 when first observed were hanging by fine threads from the roof of the 

 case. 



Larva. — The larva measured is 4 -75mm. in length, stout, with the 



