96 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



THE EGG OF PSEUDOSERMYLE TRUNGATA CAUDELL. 



BY A. N. CAUDELL, Bureau of Entomology. 



Messrs. Schwarz and Barber brought from Sabino Canyon r 

 Arizona, a female of the above species which was taken by Mr. 

 F. I. Tucker. It was inclosed in a glass jar and before dying *it 

 deposited several eggs, one of which is here figured. This egg 

 is of considerable interest, not so much for the odd shape, for 

 extraordinary shapes are common in this family of Orthoptera, 

 but for the fact that they are not dropped at random by the 

 insect but fastened to some object. In nature, they are very 

 securely glued to the stems and branches of the food plant. The 

 common supposition has been that the eggs of Phasmids were 



Fig. 1. Egg of Pseudosermyle truncata, greatly enlarged. 



dropped free but just how far this is true is not at all certain. 

 The eggs of a goodly number of species have been described but 

 the habits of oviposition are but little recorded. Brunner and 

 Redtenbacher in their recent monograph of the family make no 

 mention of exceptions to the rule of free dropping of eggs, nor 

 does Sharp in the Cambridge Natural History. In fact, the only 

 mention I know of the fastening of the eggs of walking sticks is 

 by Shelford in Kept. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1901, p. 689-691, 

 where it is stated that in Borneo the Phasmidae of the genera 

 Necroscia, Marmessoidea and Agondasoidea stick the eggs in rows 

 on the leaves of the food plant, not dropped at random as in others. 



Actual date of publication, June 12, 1914- 



