538 



Insects. 



1838, at Alabama, U.S., I found upon an apple-tree many singular- 

 looking spindle-shaped cases or cocoons, made of a strong tough silk 

 of a dirty white hue. The extremities were tapered to a point ; the 

 length was from one and a half to two inches ; the upper end termi- 

 nated in a silken band fastened tightly round a twig, from which the 

 case was suspended. The surface was thickly studded with pieces of 

 the twigs from one-third to two-thirds of an inch long, attached lon- 

 gitudinally, but somewhat slightly : these were most numerous on the 

 upper part. I made an incision in the silk, and found within a smooth 

 plump caterpillar, dull reddish brown, tapering at the extremities, the 

 head and first three segments horny and polished, white with black spots. 

 I threw the cases into a box, and the next day examined one or two 

 more, and found that some contained pupae. In a large cocoon there 

 was a dark brown pupa, much elongated, with no vestige of wings in the 

 usual place, the head, legs and antennae very small, for all these mem- 

 bers can be traced in a Lepidopterous pupa as in the imago : in ano- 

 ther was a pupa much smaller, 

 which had wings of middling 

 size, and short thick antennae. 

 I had reason to think that this 

 cocoon was used by the cater- 

 pillar as a shelter or defence, 

 while projecting the three po- 

 lished segments of its body to 

 eat, in the manner of a Phryga- 

 nea; for on suddenly opening 

 the box I saw one draw his 

 head within the cocoon at the 

 lower end, vanishing just as I 

 looked at him. This induced 

 me, by making a hole near the 

 top of the cocoon, and touch- 

 ing the larva behind, to drive 

 him clean out, as I have done 

 a Phryganea, at the lower end, which is tubular and open. But soon 

 after I found by actual observation that the manners of the larva had 

 the supposed resemblance to those of the Trichoptera ; for at night I 

 saw that the caterpillar crawled about the leaves, dragging the tent 

 after him as far as it would allow, the first three segments being pro- 

 jected. I could not but admire the circumstance that this resem- 

 blance between insects of very different orders was still more complete 



Thyridopteryx Ephemerae formis. 

 Larva, cocoon and male moth ; natural size. 



