204 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



pair not infrequently carried out over the filaments, she 

 then punctures the ovary and the egg is consigned to its 

 place in the manner so well described by Riley for fda- 

 mentom; but as a rule the operation appears to consume 

 rather less time on elata than on the other Yuccas I have 

 studied. Usually each oviposition is followed by pollination, 

 in which, so far as I can see, the moth acts precisely as on 

 filamentosa ; but in a few cases two eggs were laid before 

 pollen was carried to the stigma, and under the bright light 

 of the lantern the actions of the moth are sometimes so 

 disturbed that she will leave a flower after ovipositing, with- 

 out subsequently pollinating it. I have also observed on 

 this species that she sometimes interrupts the act of polli- 

 nation to coil the tentacles against her load of pollen, after 

 which they are again inserted in the stigma, thus securing 

 for the latter a larger amount of pollen; but I have no 

 doubt this procedure is as common on the other species pol- 

 linated by yuccaseJla. In one instance, a moth disturbed 

 by the light while ovipositing left the flower without polli- 

 nating it, but her first act on going into another flower was 

 to thrust her pollen-laden tentacles into the stigma, though 

 it appears to be unusual for this to precede oviposition. 



The collection of pollen from the anthers was not closely 

 observed on data, but on several occasions the moth, when 

 disturbed in oviposition, ran upon a stamen, shaking it quite 

 violently and making several passes at the anther with her 

 tentacles, as if impelled by fright to discontinue one of her 

 customary occupations only to engage in another,— though 

 her motions were too quick and nervous for me to see that 

 she actually gathered any pollen. There is, however, no 

 reason to doubt that the collection of pollen is similar to 

 that on filamentosa, where, however, it is by no means 

 always slow and easy of detailed observation. 



When I passed over the Texas and Pacific road ao-ain 

 about a month later, a fair crop of partly grown fruits was 

 seen, the usual constriction or indentation being noticeable 

 over the Pronuba punctures. At Benson, in southern 



