THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



NOTES ON CECANTHUS. 



BY C. O. HOUGHTON, DELAWARE EXPERIMENT STATION, NEWARK, DEL. 



In Entomological News for February, 1904, the writer published some 

 notes* concerning the oviposition of CEcanthus niveus, De Geer, and the 

 habits of the nymphs and adults of this species in confinement. As the 

 title of the article would indicate, it was thought at the time that the 

 method of oviposition there recorded (the eggs being laid singly in apple 

 and plum trees) was an unusual one, as all of the earlier writers credited 

 the snowy tree-cricket ( O. niveus) with the injury to pithy plants caused 

 by the deposition of eggs in long rows. It seemed strange, however, that 

 this species should have two methods of oviposition differing so widely as 

 this would indicate, and the writer determined to rear some tree-crickets 

 from eggs laid in long rows, as soon as an opportunity presented itself. 

 This did not occur, however, until the past season. 



Observations by Prof. P. J. Parrott and Mr. J. P. Jensen in New York 

 State, and by the writer in Delaware, during the past season (1908) have 

 shown that the earlier writers were evidently in error regarding the identity 

 of the species injuring raspberry and blackberry canes, and other pithy 

 plants (and also some fruit trees), by depositing its eggs in long rows. 

 The species largely, if not entirely responsible for such injury, in this 

 region at least, is undoubtedly Walker's nigricornis and its varieties. 



So -far as I am aware, all recent data on the subject tend to show that 

 the method of depositing eggs singly, as discussed by me in my article in 

 1904, is the usual one in the case of the snowy tree-cricket, O. niveus. 



On April 12, 1908, I collected near Newark, Del., a kw pieces of 

 branches of the common elder, Sambucus canadensis, L., which contained 

 eggs, deposited in long rows, of a species of CEcanthus. Some of the rows 

 of egg scars were evidently a year or more old, as they contained no eggs, 

 but there were three or four that contained numerous living eggs. These 

 sections of branches were brought to my laboratory and placed together in 

 a glass cylinder. Frequent examinations of the cage were made, but no 

 young crickets were found until May 16th. Several appeared on that 

 date, and they continued to emerge until the 20th. In all, about 50 were 

 secured and bottled singly or in pairs in shell vials. Several others got 

 away. I fed the nymphs on various kinds of plant-lice, principally, until 



*An Unusual Injury by the Snowy Tree-cricket and Notes on lis Feeding" 

 Habits. Vol. XV, pp. 57-61. 



See also pp. 150-152 of the 15th Ann. Report of the Del. College Agric. 

 Experiment Station. 

 April, 1909 



