CORRESPONDENCE. 



HARRIS TO MISS MORRIS. 



(Without date.) 



Sometime last summer, a little parcel was put into my hands 

 containing some insect's eggs. These arrived during my busiest 

 season, and as the eggs were new to me, they were laid aside 

 for further examination when leisure would permit. I have this 

 day received a similar sample of eggs on a twig of the white 

 rose-bush. They were brought from Pennsylvania, and my 

 friend says they are the eggs of the large-winged, green grass- 

 hopper (probably he means Phylloptera oblong if olio), which 

 lives on trees and shrubs in Pennsylvania. These eggs are of 

 a brown color, about one eighth of an inch long, oval, but lat- 

 erally compressed, and seemingly composed of two parts like a 

 bivalve shell. They are arranged obliquely, and overlap each 

 other, in a double row along the sides of the twig. They are 

 in fact exactly like the eggs sent by your sister. I have never 

 seen the eggs of the Katy-did,nor of any other of the treeGrryUi 

 \_Locustarice Latr.] ; but I have long suspected that these in- 

 sects laid them on trees because I never saw them laying their 

 eggs in the ground, after the commonly observed manner of 

 the Locustce [Acrydii Latr.]. The accounts given by European 

 authors of the habits of the Crrylli are derived from those of 

 Gryllus viridissimus, verrucivorus, etc., all which are constantly 

 represented to lay their eggs in the ground. Hence my gen- 



OCCAS. PAPERS B. S. N. H. I. 16 



