Prionyx thomae (Fabricius, 1775)

(Figure 5)

Description

External capsule. Fusiform; 17 mm in length, 5 mm in maximum width; brittle, but more malleable than the internal capsule; pale brown, darker in the extremities; internal surface more brilliant, but with layer of stout silken threads; an internal lamellate ridge spiralled from base to apex,forming 10 gyres. Attached to the substratum with a reddish substance expelled by the larva. Adult emerging slit as a transversal regular cut near the apical extremity.

Internal capsule. Fusiform; 13 mm in length, 4 mm in maximum width; very brittle; dark brown, silken threads of the wall quite uniform in thickness, without visible white pubescence, but even so, internal surface more shiny than external; an orifice in basal extremity; meconium separated from the lumen by a layer of silken threads. Both extremities with pores at the end of discrete nipple-like projections; pores obturated by silken threads. Portions of uric acid in the basal extremity, grains not defined.

Material examined

Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Maricá (Restinga de Barra de Maricá), S.C. Buys coll.: one cocoon reared in the laboratory from a prey-bearing egg collected from the nest.