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outside is made of a dull whitish parchment-like, hard, stiff, 
and tough material, with an inside lining of softer texture. 
When cut open the pupae, to the number of more than one 
hundred, were seen suspended by their tails with a silken 
thread round the upper part of the nest as well as to the 
twig which ran from the top down the interior. The pupae 
were not in any exact order — the nest had a small hole at 
the bottom through which the perfect insect would escape. 
All the pupae were dead and shrivelled up, but Mr. West- 
wood succeeded in identifying the species after he had care- 
fully softened portions of the membranous wings so as to 
display the true forms of their nervures and cells — it proved 
to belong to the family of the Heliconoid moths, named 
Eucheira socialise 
The other nest is from tropical Africa, and is the only 
specimen known. It forms a large tent over the branch of 
a tree. Nothing is known of the species, and it is most 
probably the gregarious tent of a moth. 
Humboldt describes a moth also found in Mexico— Bombyx 
Modrono — which is gregarious, the larvae uniting to form a 
goodish sized nest of a dense tough material and brilliant 
whiteness, from the lining and cocoons of which the natives 
procure a supply of silk of a soft fair quality. 
The nests which I exhibit are, I believe, allied to the 
species just described, but they possess some peculiar fea- 
tures which he does not allude to, and which would scarcely 
have escaped his notice had the nests of B. Modrono pos- 
sessed them. 
These nests were brought by Mr. James P. Spence with 
his extensive collection of natural history objects from 
Venezuela, which it will be remembered were exhibited in 
the Society’s rooms December, 1872. I obtained them 
when the collection was subsequently sold. As there is no 
description of them in his MS. list beyond “ Nests of a cater- 
