W. Ritchie 



193 



Egg-laying being completed the egg-tubes are now empty or con- 

 tracted as shown in Fig. 15. The oviduct also is contracted while the 

 outline of the receptaculum semi n is enclosed in the anterior end of the 

 bursa copulatrix is now traceable. 



In the case of females which had completed egg-laying and had fed 

 for a period of about four months prior to a possible second egg-laying, 

 I found that, with the exception of a slight increase in the size of the 

 terminal or nutritive chamber, the parts of their reproductive organs 

 had undergone little further change in appearance. 



In all my dissections of the reproductive organs of females both in 

 the egg-laying and after egg-laying stages I failed to notice any trace 

 of the so-called corpora lutea, or heap of degenerate yellowish tissue, 

 which in many insects frequently collects at the bases of the egg- 

 chambers as soon as eggs have passed into the oviduct. 



Fig. 14. Reproductive organs of female C. ahietis egg-laying (greatly magnified). 



In the following columns I emphasize the significant characters 

 which appeared to be most useful in determining the unripeness and 

 ripeness of the female reproductive organs. 



