164 



MR. STAINTON ON ORGYIA. 



place within the cocoon, and lasts abont half a day. I have un- 

 fortunately forborne from disturbing the privacy of the matri- 

 monial joys, but believe that there is nothing new to be observed. 



" I can only state that at last the male reappears in very desolate 

 condition, and then has no long prospect of life. In my cages 

 they lived, at most, for only two days after the copulation. The 

 female does not wait long before she deposits her eggs in the 

 cocoon, and then dies." 



We have now traced the peculiar habit of the female not quitting 

 the cocoon in four species — rupestris, Trigotephras, Mricce, and 

 dubia. Now, if Corsica and splendida be referred as varieties to 

 rupestris and dubia respectively, we have but seven species of 

 Orgyia in Europe ; and of one of those, O. aurolimbata, the female 

 is unknown ; hence, out of six species, the abnormal habit prevails 

 in four, — Orgyia antiqua and O. gonostigma (the only two yet 

 known to occur in this country) being the only species in which 

 the female quits the cocoon and deposits the eggs outside it. 



Now, in this habit of the greater number of our European species 

 of Orgyia what an approach we have to Oiketicus and Psyche ! 

 The genera are still widely separated in the larva state ; for all the 

 larvae of Orgyia are hairy, gaily ornamented with tufts of hair, 

 whereas the larvae of Oiketicus and Psyche are naked, and have 

 their ugly bodies protected and concealed by the cases which the 

 larvae construct. But in the imago state we have this important 

 coincidence : the only genera of Lepidoptera in which the female 

 never comes out of the abode of the pupa, but there awaits the 

 approaches of the male, are Orgyia, Oiketicus, Psyche, and Fumea. 



I have spoken only of the European species of Orgyia, but I 

 believe it will be found that a similar peculiarity prevails amongst 

 extra-European species. In the collection of the British Museum 

 1 have only noticed females of two species of this genus from extra- 

 European localities. One of these, O. leucostigma from Nova Scotia, 

 appeai-.s 1 belong to the same group as O. antiqua; and I fancy,' 

 from the development of the legs and antenna 1 of the female, that 

 she leaves the cocoon. The other species, O. australis, from New 

 Holland, has the female comparatively undeveloped, and 1 should 

 imagine that she does not quit the cocoon. 



