MACALISTER ON SOME LARVA CASES OF OIKETICUS. 131 



twigs are of some exogenous plant — propably an acacia. The extremities 

 of these appendages are rounded, and have evidently been so shaped by 

 the strong jaws of the larva. The felted fibres of the wall occasionally 

 cross over them, and thus form collars to bind them in their place. 

 The adhesion of these sticks to the wall is so firm that they can be de- 

 tached only by great force, and Mrs. Meredith in her "Notes and 

 Sketches of New South Wales" says that in attempting to tear the 

 wall the twigs will often tear across along with their silky envelope. 

 Mr. Stephenson, whose observations are quoted by Professor Westwood, 

 describes these cases as being hung upon the branches of Lystospermum 

 or Melalenca ; and Mrs. Meredith notes that the insect seems to select 

 those trees whose branches are nearly the colour of its own nest. It is 

 described as being very swift in the reparation of any injury to the 

 structure of its house ; a breach is healed up with such expedition and 

 accuracy that the nicest eye could not detect the patching. For figures 

 and description of this species I would refer to Professor Westwood' s 

 paper.* 



The second individual is the ease of Oiketicus Lewinii — probably 

 that of the male figured by Westwood. f These houses will be seen to 

 be solid, firmly built, nearly cylindrical in shape, and varying from an 

 inch and a-quarter to an inch and a-half in length, and from an inch to 

 an inch and a-quarter in circumference. The extremity is nearly flat 

 at the oral end and obtusely conical or acuminate at the distal ; extern- 

 ally they appear as cylindrical bundles of twigs ; the interspaces between 

 the component rods are so narrow that very little of the proper wall 

 tissue is visible outside. About fifteen to seventeen twigs surround 

 each case, and these are portions of various trees, apparently selected at 

 random, as two or three different species of plants may be found con- 

 tributing to form the wall of one case. The most of these twigs are 

 half a line to a line in thickness, and about an inch to an inch and a- 

 half in length ; but in each case there will be one or two nearly double 

 the length of the others, and projecting towards the distal end. Some- 

 times a few project on the oral end for a short distance, but the greater 

 prolongations are invariably in the other direction. These twigs have 

 all distinctly rounded or gnawed ends, and they are united by a felted 

 matting similar to that in 0. Saundersii. A thin lamina of this silky 

 material is continued between each of the mural twigs, and comes to 

 the external surface when it can be seen distinctly. The interior is 

 lined by a firm, fine smooth silky stratum, closely bound to the interior 

 of the twigs, and containing a loose flocculent down ; and in one which 

 I have opened there still remained the fragments of an annulated pu- 

 parium. One specimen was firmly tied by a very stout root of strong 

 twisted silky fibres to the bark of a plant, which I think was an Eu- 



* "Proc.Zool. Soc," 1854, p. 223, PI. 35, and to Mr. Sanders's " Proc. Entorm 

 Soc." vol. v., p. 43. 



f "Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1854, p. 37, and described at p. 231 of the same work. 



