254 NEPHOPTEKYX ABIETELLA. 



taining a living larva of last year (1878) lying curled 

 in a ring. This cocoon he tells me is a false or 

 temporary cocoon, or hibernaculum, constructed 

 simply for hibernation ; and that when the larva 

 intends to pupate, it will come out and form another, 

 the true cocoon, of the usual oval shape. Dr. Wood 

 affirms it to be the ordinary habit of this larva to 

 form these two kinds of cocoons, although occasionally 

 an individual is met with that dispenses with the 

 round temporary one, and acts like the one I had in 

 1877, which produced the moth in June, 1878. 



Last autumn (1878) Dr. Wood found an infested 

 cone ; it was put in a tin. On opening this in May,, 

 1879, a larva was disturbed whilst making its pupating 

 cocoon, and though this contretemps happened twice,, 

 it would not be baulked of its intention, and in good 

 time produced the moth. On the 7th of October, 

 when cleaning out this tin for something else, Dr. 

 Wood found in one of the corners under a few loose 

 scales three of the round flattish cocoons ; one was 

 empty, and had previously contained the larva whose 

 history had just been given ; another held a dead 

 larva ; and the third Dr. Wood kindly enclosed to me, 

 which I received (together with an infested cone) on 

 the 8th of October, 1879. 



This round flattish case, containing a larva, I figured 

 on the 23rd of October, and kept apart with a bit of 

 an old cone quite dry of the year 1877. 



The infested cone that came with it I also kept 

 separate. In writing to Dr. Wood I expressed an 

 opinion that I had held for some time, that the small 

 iarvse I had received from him late in autumn in 

 former years could not be full-grown, as they did not 

 produce a moth, though I had kept them over two 

 years ; but that when a larva came from him to me 

 much larger than any I had before seen, more than 

 double the size of the others, that larva produced the 

 moth — a fact which seemed to point to the larval 

 life extending over two seasons. 



