160 



ME. STAINTON ON" ORGYIA. 



reduced to a shrivelled morsel of dried and scarcely animated skin, 

 drops out of the case and dies." 



Having now gone through the various genera of the Psychidce, 

 I return to the genus Orgyia. The abnormal habit of the females 

 which I have thought it would be interesting to bring under the 

 notice of this Society is this : — 



In many species of the genus Orgyia the female has ill-developed 

 legs and antennce, and never quits the cocoon. 



This statement rests on a series of distinct observations made on 

 different species by various entomologists ; and it is not till we 

 collate these recorded observations that we perceive how general is 

 this peculiar habit. 



Orgyia rttpestris. In the ' Annales de la Societe Entomo- 

 logique de France,' tome i. (published in 1832), we find, at p. 275, a 

 description of this species by Rambur, in a List of Corsican Lepi- 

 doptera, with descriptions of some new species. He thus notices 

 the female : — 



" The female is nearly apterous, its wings being reduced to two 

 very minute velvety scales. The whole body is covered with whitish 

 down ; it is little more than a bag quite filled with eggs. The parts 

 of the chrysalis- skin almost always remain on the head and the 

 neighbouring parts of the body. 



" This female, whose existence is confined to the single act of 

 reproduction, does not come out of its cocoon, from which it 

 protrudes its anus so that the male may copulate with it. That 

 done, it fills its cocoon with its eggs intermixed with down, and 

 covers the entire mass with a strong bed of down. After the eggs 

 are deposited, one can scarcely find the remains of the body. The 

 Count de Saporta has observed similar manners in Orgyia Trigo- 

 tephras, in the neighbourhood of Aix." These observations of 

 the Count de Saporta, though made previously to those of Dr. 

 Rambur, were published two years later. 



OiMiviA TjRlGOTEPHEAS. /V notice of this species, by the Count 

 de Saporta, appears in the 3rd volume of tlx; ' Annales de la Societe 

 Entomologiqne de France/ p. 183, published inl834. After noticing 

 that the male perfect insect conies out of its cocoon like all other 



Lepidoptera, he observes : — 



"It is not so with the female, which is covered with a white 

 flown, and is entirely destitute of wings;' " scs antennes, tres- 

 (•oni-l.es, ne sent point visibles " (a sentence I find difficulty in 

 translating) ; "and its legs even are so short that they can be of 



