Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/134

112 only by accident that a specimen, uncased after the rupture of the thoracic carina, cleared up the mystery. When the pupa had slept the appointed time, the animal, still resident within the habitaculum formed by the larva, was found to open the carina by the motion of its head, and prepare to receive the winged male. Here, therefore, we have an animal which in its adult state is for ever excluded from the light, and never even beholds the mate to which it is indebted for its progeny. After impregnation, the female begins to fill the bottom of its puparium with her ova, closely packed in the down rubbed from her body, and having performed this duty, either presses herself through the thoracic carina, reduced to a shrivelled morsel of dried and scarcely animated skin, or dies within the case.

The eggs are rounded, small, and yellow, and exist in very great numbers. As soon as hatched, the larvæ force their way out of the puparium, spread themselves over the tree, and commence to prepare a habitation even before they have taken food. This habitaculum is cylindrical, open at both ends, and strengthened by small pieces of wood, gnawed leaves, &c. held together by interwoven threads. Under its protection the larva moves about much in the same manner as takes place with the Phryganidæ. When young the tail is borne erect, but it soon becomes horozontal [sic] owing to the weight of the incumbent mass. The larva is thick and fleshy with broad black feet, the three pectoral pairs very