BEHAVIOR OF SPIDERS AND INSECTS OTHER THAN ANTS 409 



of reproductive behavior have been fairly constant since their 



origin." 



MATERNAL BEHAVIOR 



Baker and Turner (6) describe the oviposition of the green 

 apple-aphis; Gruppy (39), of the syrphid flies; Harris (40), of 

 the beetle Bruchus; Hayes (41), of the maize bill -bug; Knab 

 (59), of Dermaiobia hominis; Snyder (99), of the termites; Whit- 

 marsh (117), of Apateticus cynicus; and Turner (111), of several 

 Orthoptera. 



Miller (66) describes, in detail, the method by which Megas- 

 tigmus spermotropus slowly forces her ovipositor through the 

 cone of the Douglas fir, lays her eggs and then withdraws the 

 ovipositor. 



Evans (29) informs us that, as a rule, the house-fly does not breed 

 in garbage, although that is one of its favorite feeding places. 



Rau (82) discovers that Calliopsis nebraskaensis Cfd., a soli- 

 tary bee the nests of which form large colonies, keeps the en- 

 trance of its nest closed. 



Pierce notes (81) that the weevil, Polydesmus impressifrons, 

 deposits her eggs, in masses of from 20 to 80, under the loose 

 bark of the willow, the poplar, the birch, the apple and the pear. 



Urbahns (112) states that a parasitic fly, Habrocytus medicagnis, 

 thrusts her ovipositor through the walls of the seed-pod of the 

 alfalfa into the watery seed and lays her eggs upon the larva of 

 a chalcid fly- 

 Smith (98) observed a parasitic Hymenopteran, Perilampus 

 hyalinus, lay its eggs on the leaf of the oleander. The newly 

 hatched larva is well supplied with hooks. It creeps about 

 over the leaf, then stands erect, hooks itself on the first chrysopa 

 larva that passes and bores into it. 



In a series of seventy experiments, conducted on flies placed 

 in solitary confinement as soon as they emerged, Hutchison (50) 

 finds that the period of preoviposition of the house-fly varies 

 from two and a half to twenty-three days, dependent upon the 

 temperature, the humidity, and the kind and quality of the food. 



McGregor (63) states that the privet mite oviposits about 

 twenty eggs in either an abrasion, or a depression, or in old 

 moulted skins. 



Rau (S3) describes in detail the nidification of the mud-wasps 

 Scleiphron caementarium, Chalybion caeruleum, and Trypoxylon 



