540 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
male chrysalis works his way down to the end of the case, forcing 
open the old aperture there, and projecting the head, thorax, and 
upper portion of the abdomen, the pupa being secured from falling 
by the spines on its posterior segments, which retain a firm hold in 
the silk. The anterior portion then ruptures, and the moth makes its 
escape, clinging to the outside of its old habitation and drying its 
wings. It is probable that the female insect does not leave her case, 
communication with the male being no doubt effected through one of 
the orifices, and the eggs afterwards deposited inside.* On one 
occasion I found a case full of eggs, containing the shrivelled body of 
the female and her old pupa-shell, which would seem to confirm the 
above opinion. In colour the male is of a uniform blackish brown, 
becoming darker on the body, and lighter near the middle of the 
front wings, cach of which has an obscure rusty brown spot near its 
hind margin; all are very sparsely covered with scales, the posterior 
pair being semitransparent. The antenne are heavily bipectinate at 
their bases, becoming quite simple at the tips. The expansion of the 
wings is eight lines. 
The female has a great superficial resemblance to a large 
maggot; the head and thorax are very small, the legs being 
extremely minute, and much resembling those of the larva in 
structure; they are of no use in walking, the insect being incapable 
of locomotion, or indeed movement of any kind, except a slight 
twirling of the ovipositor, which takes place when the eggs are being 
laid. The antenne are in the form of two minute papillw, apparently 
without articulations, projecting from each side of the head. The 
abdomen is very large, and the divisions are somewhat obscurely 
indicated; at its extremity it is furnished with a slender two-jointed 
ovipositor, the basal joint being twice the width of the terminal one; 
above this is situated a thin tuft of straw-coloured scales, and there 
are also a few scatterad ones of the same colour on the anterior 
portion of the insect and about the legs. Colour uniform dull yellow, 
the head and prothorax slightly corneous and dark brown. Length 
ten lines. This creature is of such a soft consistency that it becomes 
quite flat when placed on a hard level surface, which offers it no 
support. | 
Of the habits of the imago in its natural state I am quite 
ignorant, as all the specimens I have ever seen were reared in 
captivity from cases containing either larve or pupx; and as its 
discoverer, Mr. Fereday, of Christchurch, obtained all his examples 
in the same way, it would appear to be very rarely met with in 
the open. 
Notwithstanding the strong case that protects this insect during 
its preparatory stages it is very susceptible to the attacks of dipterous 
parasites; in fact it is so frequently infested that I am sure quite 
three out of four of all the cases I have opened have contained 
dipterous pupe. The numbers found in each individual vary con- 
siderably; generally there are about six, but as many as fourteen or 
fifteen frequently occur in very large caterpillars, while the much 
* For details of copulation and figures of genitalia in the allied American bag- 
or basket worm (Thyridopteryx ephemereformis, Haw.), see Riley’s description in Sci. 
Am., Suppl., April 3rd, 1878, and Proc. Bi. Soc. Washington, ii.. pp. 80-83.—E. A. F. 
i ie 
