1896.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 149 



regularly fed on bits of bread, cheese, crackers, sugar, table 

 scraps, and also supplied with water. On the 3ist of July one 

 female died and was found partly devoured; the male died Au- 

 gust 1 5th; the second female August 25th; and the third and 

 last female died September 6th, soon after dropping an egg cap- 

 sule. The three females during their lives in the jar deposited 

 twenty-five egg-cases (oothecae); or about eight for each female. 

 As one egg-case contains just sixteen eggs, eight in a row on each 

 side, twenty-five would represent a new generation of four hun- 

 dred cockroaches in one season of about four and a half months. 

 The first egg-case hatched Nov. 9, 1895, and the second a few 

 days later, but whether these were the first two dropped, viz., 

 May 5th and May I4th I am not positive, but suppose they 

 were. Prof. C. V. Riley says ("The Standard Nat. Hist." vol. 

 ii, p. 171): "The female cockroach carries the egg-case about 

 with her until the young are ready to emerge, when it is dropped. ' ' 

 This you will notice does not coincide with my observations. 

 The length of time in which the female carries her egg-case, from 

 the first appearance of the bulb to the moment of dropping, I 

 have never observed to be over five days, and generally only 

 four, but Edw. A. Butler says ("Our Household Insects," Lon- 

 don, 1893): " When full, the case protrudes from the end of the 

 abdomen of the female, and is carried about by her in this posi- 

 tion for about a week, after which it is dropped into a suitable 

 crevice in a warm situation." On three different occasions I 

 saw the females scoop out a shallow cavity in the loam, using the 

 head and legs in digging; in this the egg-case was deposited and 

 carefully covered up with loose earth, In most instances, how- 

 ever, the egg-cases were dropped promiscuously, with no attempt 

 at concealment. The development of the ootheca or egg-cap- 

 .sule is interesting. It first appears at the tip of the abdomen as 

 a soft hemispherical bulb, of a creamy white color, in marked 

 contrast to the deep brown color of the body. On the second 

 clay it becomes oblong and somewhat compressed, and changes 

 to a dull yellow or clay color. It subsequently assumes a dark 

 brown tint, scarcely differing from that of the color of the parent. 

 The sixteen little Periplanetas that emerged from the eggs on the 

 9th of November were delicate in form, semi-transparent, and ot 

 a pale amber color. Their eyes were their most conspicuous 

 features, being comparatively very large, and of deep brown 



