NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 85 



dining in the direction of the ovipositor. At intervals of from 5 to 2 minutes, the 

 ovipositor is drawn forcibly forward and sometimes partly out of the slit, and then 

 reinserted. By noting the number of times this movement was repeated, it was 

 found to agree with the number of eggs in the slit. 



The making and filling with eggs of the first slit requires from 20 to 25 minutes, 

 after which the ovipositor is entirely withdrawn, and a second slit, shorter than the 

 first, parallel to and curving towards it, is made, without change of position by the 

 insect. The ovipositor is inserted as during the oviposition of the first series of 

 eggs, but at a very considerable angle from that then assumed. The introduction 

 of the eggs in the second slit is as described for the first. The sheath of the ovi- 

 positor maintains, during oviposition, a rapid in-and-out motion. 



On the completion of the slit as above described, a rest of considerable length is 

 taken before the insect begins work again. 



The number of eggs contained in each slit varies from six to twelve, or even more. 

 A female which had been observed from the cutting of the first slit to the close of 

 oviposition was then captured, and found still to contain 40 or more eggs. The first 

 and second slits made by it contained respectively nine and ten eggs. 



The eggs on either side are introduced from the farthest removed slit, and not 

 from the one directly above them, as I had at first supposed. By this means the 

 outer bark is cut loose from beneath; and when broken apart by the growth of the 

 limb leaves the apparently single scar seen on the older limbs. 



Ceresa bubalus does not confine its punctures to the apple; other plants — trees 

 and even weeds — furnish receptacles for its eggs. On Sept. 30, last, numbers of this 

 insect were observed depositing eggs on a willow in a ravine. The mode of pro- 

 cedure here was the same as on the apple; and the limbs presented a similar scarred 

 appearance, caused by the work of the insect in previous years. 



An examination of several neighboring orchards showed but little of the work of 

 this insect. Their injurious abundance in the orchard in question and paucity in 

 others near by is a noteworthy feature in the history of this insect. 



The Buffalo Tree-Hopper, in both mature and larval stages, feeds on the juices of 

 plants — not, however, confining its attacks to the apple — and probably in this way 

 occasions but slight damage. The cutting-up of the bark to form receptacles for 

 its eggs, however, is a serious injury to the tree, and one not easily prevented, owing 

 to the activity of the insect and the impossibility of destroying its eggs without at 

 the same time destroying the tree containing them. The commonly accepted but 

 certainly erroneous account of the oviposition of this insect, given by Dr. C. V. 

 Riley in his Fifth Missouri Report, page 121. forms the excuse for this paper. He 

 says: "The egg-punctures of this Buffalo Tree-Hopper, Ceresa bubalus, .... 

 consist of a row more or less straight of little raised slits in the bark, in each of which, 

 upon careful examination, may be found an oval, dark-colored egg." 



In a recent number of the Canadian Entomologist, Mr. J. G. Jack briefly describes 

 the condition of bark cut up by the ovipositors of this insect, the eggs, and the 

 larval stages. I failed to secure Mr. Jack's paper until my own had been written, 

 but I find that his observations agree with mine wherever they cover the same 

 ground. 



NOTE ON A NEW VARIETY OF A SONORAN SERPENT FROM KANSAS. 



BY F. ^y. CRA(;iN, sc. b. 



The specimen which serves as the basis of the following remarks is one of Rhino- 

 chilus Lecontei, B. <fe G., which was brought living to the writer in the summer of 

 1885, in Barber county, Kansas. It was taken by Master Chancy Smith, in a garden 



