442 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
formed? Has the imago or the pupa the power of secreting some fluid that 
decomposes the wall of the seed ; but if so, how is it that the aperture is so 
perfectly true in its circular form? This aperture is never visible until the 
imago or pupa has emerged. The seeds remain externally intact up to 
that time. It occurred to me that the larva, before going into the pupa 
state, might possibly prepare an exit for the imago by eating partly through 
the wall, but not so far as to break through altogether. With a view to 
ascertain this, I have just opened a seed, and find a perfect pupa, and no 
sign of the interior of the walls having been eaten away, as I conjectured 
above ; and besides, if such preparatory boring, as I conjectured, had 
occurred, this would have involved intelligence on the part of the larva, 
which one can hardly suppose. The subject, I think, is an interesting 
one, and I hope that some of your entomological readers will throw 
some light upon it—W. OxEnDEN Hammonp (St. Alban’s Court, near 
Wingham, Kent). 
[See ‘Entomologist,’ 1895, 1896, and 1897, and especially a paper by 
Dr. Sharp “ On Jumping Cocoons from South Africa,” Entom. November, 
1896.—Eb.] ; 
