Hungerfokd: Tiik Toad Bug. 149 



not count the full coniplenicnt. Oviposition continues throughout 

 the season, the number of eggs laid per day varying from 1 to 13, 

 from 2 to 6 being perhaps the average. A study of the hatching 

 dates on the life-history tables will indicate the rate of egg-laying 

 very well. 



INCUBATION. 



The incubation period varied from twelve to fifteen days. The 

 red eyespots of the embryo are evident a number of days before 

 hatching. The egg increases in size somewhat as the embryo devel- 

 ops, and the egg becomes darker with development. 



HATCHING. 



I was fortunate enough to observe the hatching process with the 

 binoculars on several occasions, but never in as satisfactory lighting 

 as I should have liked. The cephalic end of the egg shell splits longi- 

 tudinally, squarely between the eyes, and extends back above the 

 dorsum of the embryo. Through this rent a white, bulging body 

 appears, resembling the bubble found above the head of Corixa. 

 The front part of the head of the embryo pulsates rapidly. By slow 

 straining heaves the embryo crowds out through the opening. Its 

 body is as soft and pliable as a caterpillar. By bulging the fore part 

 of the body and contracting the latter part, it worms its w^ay to free- 

 dom — a creamy-white creature marked wdth two large, dark-red 

 eyes, and v/ith a body nearly cylindrical in shape and the thick 

 limbs all most economically tucked away upon its venter. Then 

 comes the postnatal molt, the casting of the shroud that binds the 

 embryo. Standing erect upon its caudal end, its body encompassed 

 and its limbs tied down by a diaphanous membrane that still holds 

 it helpless to the empty casque in which it was formed, it struggles 

 for freedom. First the membrane gives way above the head and 

 emergence begins. As this skin slips back, the knob-like antennse, 

 which were directed downward along the beak, are free and change 

 their position. Then the beak appears, and after slowly bending 

 back and forward, one front leg pops out free, then the other. Fi- 

 nally all the legs are free, and the little bug settles down upon them, 

 the shroud still about the tip of the abdomen. He flattens out into 

 a toad bug, and after resting for a time, as if the birth struggles had 

 been most exhausting, he suddenly becomes lively and starts away. 

 Over the first moist pebble he passes, the molt is left, if by chance it 

 did not remain fastened in the slit of the egg-shell. A period of 

 thirty minutes often is consumed in the hatching. One bug that 



