Chap. XII.] THE WOOD- CARRYING MOTH. 



431 



African species has ob- 

 tained the name of " Lie- 

 tor." The Grerman en- 

 tomologists denominated 

 the group Sacktrager, the 

 Singhalese call them Da- 

 ra-hattea or "billets of 

 firewood/' and regard the 

 inmates as human beings, 

 who, as a punishment for 

 stealing wood in some 

 former state of existence, 

 have been condemned to 

 undergo a metempsychosis 

 under the form of these 

 insects. 



The male, at the close 

 of the pupal rest, escapes 

 from one end of this sin- 

 gular covering, but the 

 female makes it her dwel- 

 ling for life; moving about 

 with it at pleasure, and 

 entrenching herself within 

 it, when alarmed, by 

 drawing together the 

 purse-like aperture at the 

 open end. Of these re- 

 markable creatures there 

 are five ascertained spe- 

 cies in Ceylon : Psyche 

 Doubledaii, Westw. ; Me- 

 tisa plana, Walker ; En- 



THE WOOD-CARRYING MOTH. 



