MR. STXI> T TO>~ ON ORGYIA. 



159 



it has completed its task, it drops out of the case, an empty 

 shrivelled skin. 



Intermediate, perhaps, between Fumea and Psyche comes the 

 singular Psyche ? Helix, noticed by Von Siebold. This, again, is 

 a sexless nurse, of which the male is hitherto unknown. The 

 larvae are common in many parts of Germany, but never produce 

 anything but vermiform females, which deposit eggs which are 

 always fertile. 



Psyche. The females are vermiform, with the legs extremely 

 small and rudimentary, hardly perceptible antennas, the parts of 

 the mouth very ill developed, and imperfect eyes. It never quits 

 the case, nor comes quite out of the pupa-skin ; it only slightly 

 protrudes its head from the open end of the case whilst awaiting 

 the approaches of the male. Copulation is effected by the male 

 thrusting the extremity of its abdomen into the case of the female, 

 after which operation the female deposits her eggs in the empty 

 pupa-skin, imbedding them in layers of wool, and filling the 

 pupa-skin so tightly that, except for the opening at the anterior 

 end, it might pass for an undeveloped pupa. 



Such pupa-skins may occasionally have been collected by mistake 

 for pupae, and the subsequent exclusion of young larvae would tend 

 to spread the idea that the female bred from the pupa collected had, 

 without impregnation, laid fertile eggs. Yon Siebold, when first 

 he turned his attention to the subject, received numerous notices 

 from different quarters of females of the genus Psyche producing 

 young without previous copulation ; but in none of the known 

 species (excepting the anomalous Psyche ? Helix) has this been 

 confirmed. 



Oiketicfs. This genus was established by Lansdown Guilding 

 in the 15th volume of the ' Transactions ' of this Society (p. 373), 

 and has since been the subject of a paper by Professor Westwood 

 in the 1 Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' (1854, p. 219). The 

 female is vermiform, with legs, antenuae, and eyes very ill developed : 

 in some species the legs are so rudimentary as to be little more than 

 perceptible, whereas in Oiketicus Saundersii the legs, though very 

 short and little serviceable, are distinctly articulated. 



The female never quits the case : copulation is effected by the 

 male inserting the extremity of the abdomen into the interior of 

 the case of the female. " After impregnation," observes Lansdown 

 Guilding, " the female begins to fill the bottom of its puparium with 

 her ova, closely packed in the down rubbed from her body, and then, 



