Volume 33, Plate IX / Entomology (Insects)

Oiketicus Kirbyi & Cryptothelea Macleayi

1. to 5. Oiketicus Kirbyi. A remarkable West Indian moth whose female is wingless and never leaves the puparium, there receiving the male through a split in the thorax and laying numerous small yellow eggs before dying. The larva builds a cylindrical case strengthened with wood and leaves, moving about and suspending itself to pupate; the black male expands about an inch and three-quarters with strongly pectinated antennae, and the species proves very injurious to garden fruit-trees.
6. Cryptothelea Macleayi. A West Indian moth closely resembling the preceding in its metamorphoses but in the perfect form approaching Psyche, with antennae pectinated throughout, broad ample wings, and a wingless female confined to the puparium. The male is wholly black, the female yellowish with bands of yellow woolly hairs; the larva keeps its tail erect and lives among the branches and trunks of old trees, often building its movable tent of lichens.