BAOOTIA SEPIUM. 259 



floor of the oval case from which the insect has emerged (Zeller). The 

 ovipositor is thrust into the cocoon after copulation, and the eggs are 

 laid in the pupa-skin, which is filled to its upper edge with smooth 

 eggs, piled up one on the other. This done the female fills up the 

 orifice of the pupa- skin and the upper part of the case with a cottony 

 down obtained from the anal tuft (Breyer). 



Ovum. — Broadly oval, smooth and yellowish- white (Speyer). 



Case. — The case is bluntly conical, 5-5mm. in height, 2-75mm. in 

 width ; upright, i.e., standing perpendicularly to the surface on which 

 the larva rests ; the apex rounded, the silk of which it is formed 

 whitish, but thickly covered with minute particles of the lichen on 

 which the larva feeds, giving the case a hoary appearance (green, yellow 

 and white are seen to be the colours of the particles under a lens), the 

 mouth forms an almost perfect circle (Described June 12th, 1899). 

 Speyer notes the case as three lines long and one line broad, short, bluntly 

 conical, not narrowed anteriorly, with wide round opening ; the fine 

 silk of which it is composed covered outside with very fine particles 

 of lichen and dry leaves, and, without any regular arrangement, occa- 

 sionally with pieces of bark, lichen, wood, or leaf, usually greenish-grey in 

 colour." Breyer notes the case as often ornamented with rather large 

 pieces of lichen debris applied in the direction of its length, the pieces 

 of lichen sometimes covering the free extremity of the pyramid. As a 

 rule the colour of the case corresponds with that of the bark on the side 

 of the tree exposed to the prevalent rains. Zeller describes the case 

 as " oval, and having the greenish colour of the lichen on which the 

 larva feeds." 



Habits of larva. — The larvae live on the lichen-covered trunks 

 and branches of trees, they appear never to live on the ground nor to 

 change from one tree to another. In this respect they differ from 

 most of their congeners for even the trunk-haunting Fumeids and 

 Solenobiids appear to wander freely and only come to tree-trunks to 

 exuviate or pupate. Their food consists of tree-lichens, and Breyer says 

 they take two years to come to maturity. They carry their cases 

 quite perpendicularly to the surface on which they rest, walking with 

 their true legs, the abdomen clinging tightly to the silk of the inside 

 of the case. The slightest touch causes a larva to withdraw itself and 

 the round mouth of the case is brought closely down to the resting- 

 surface, but it very soon protrudes its head and thoracic segments 

 again, pulls its case along with a slight jerk and travels exceedingly 

 rapidly for so small a larva. In confinement the larvae eat freely tree- 

 lichens that have been dipped in water, and one can rear them in this 

 way with a little care and attention. As to its mode of walking, 

 Breyer says that the forward movement uncovers the head, pro-,meso-, 

 and metathorax, and the lower third of the 1st abdominal. The larva fixes 

 itself by the third pair of true legs, stretches its head as far as the 

 thoracic segments will allow, takes up a position with the anterior 

 legs, and draws up to them the metathorax with the case and its con- 

 tents. When it walks on a smooth object, the head carries with it, in 

 advance, a silken thread which it attaches to the object. It is 

 this silken thread which the larva takes between its true legs and 

 which serves as a mobile ladder or a cord which the larva grips. 

 When many larvae are kept for some weeks in a glass jar large flakes 

 of silky tissue can be peeled off. Zeller says that the larva spends 



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