492 Report of the Department of Entomology of the 



are often chosen, but in raspberry canes and elder the common 

 thickness of the wood in which the eggs are laid is not much under 

 a centimeter. If the stalk is vertical the female apparently manifests 

 no preference as to choice of position, but if the plant slants a little 

 she almost invariably chooses the uppermost side. In places where 

 strong prevailing winds have caused all the weeds in a locality to 

 lean in the same direction it will usually be found that nearly all 

 the eggs are placed on the exposed side of the stalks of the plants. 

 Before drilling, the female chews a small hole in the outer bark. 

 She then arches up her body, brings the ovipositor forward perpen- 

 dicular to the stalk, places the tip of it in the hole which she has 

 previously made, and begins to drill. It takes about five minutes 

 to push in the ovipositor for the first time. After this operation 

 is done she reams out the hole by pulling the ovipositor nearly out 

 and drilling it in a few more times. The egg is then forced down 

 and she slowly pulls out the ovipositor, pausing with the tip of this 

 organ in the hole to exude a small quantity of mucilaginous sub- 

 stance. In the case of one individual an egg protruded from the 

 underside of the ovipositor when it was withdrawn. The female 

 extracted the egg from its position with her mouth and ate it. Again 

 she chewed the bark about the margin of the hole and then resumed 

 drilling. After about eight minutes she withdrew the ovipositor 

 and as before another egg was caught in this organ, which she dis- 

 posed of in the same manner as the first one. In both instances 

 a large quantity of mucilaginous liquid was discharged at the time 

 of the extraction of the eggs which she removed from the ovipositor by 

 her mouth before renewing operations. After an egg is deposited 

 the female as a finishing touch to the process of oviposition bites 

 out small pieces of bark just above the egg puncture and places 

 them in the hole, carefully kneading them with her mouth parts 

 to make a neat cap over the opening. The spot where the bark 

 is removed serves as the next position for the drilling operations 

 preparatory to the deposition of another egg. This process is con- 

 tinued until a number of eggs, forming a row, are laid. (Fig. 34, a, 

 and Plate XXXIV.) The total number of eggs deposited varies 

 greatly with individual crickets. In 1910 the records of six pairs con- 

 fined in breeding cages were respectively as follows: (1) 165 eggs, (2) 

 64, (3) 26, (4) 78, (5) 52, (6) 31. During 1913 three pairs deposited 

 respectively 22, 51 and 60 eggs. The eggs were deposited in rows 



