5i J 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. VI, No. 14 



females under observation (see Table I) laid an average of 30%" eggs 

 each, the record being 34, 25, 38, and 26 eggs, respectively. The females, 

 after performing what is apparently their sole purpose in life, die within 

 24 to 36 hours after oviposition is completed. The adults are especially 

 numerous in southern Arizona during February, March, April, and May, 

 and again during October and November. 



THE EGG 



The egg (fig. 2) is placed on a long stalk or pedicel, which is hair-like 

 and about half an inch in length. The egg itself is oblong and very 

 small; at first it is whitish, but in a day or two it darkens and thereafter 

 until it hatches the segmentation of the developing larva is revealed 

 through the eggshell. It has a button or lid at the upper 

 end, which is slightly flattened, while the lower end tapers 

 until it is barely larger than the stalk to which it is attached. 

 The original description by Coquillett (3) is as follows: 



Very pale blue, elongate -ovate, pointed at the base, the apex flat- 

 tened and in its center is a white button -shaped object; surface 

 minutely granulated; length, three and one-half hundredths of an inch; mounted on 

 a bristle-like pedicle from thirteen to eighteen hundredths of an inch long. 



The egg stage (see Table I) was found to vary, being from 6 to 1 2 days 

 in duration under the temperatures at which the experiment was carried 

 on. The average time required for the 122 eggs under observation was 

 8 days. 



Table I. — The egg stage of Chrysopa californica at Tempe, Ariz., in 1915 



Average 

 mean 



temper- 

 ature. 



Fig. 2. — Chrysopa 

 californica: Eggs. 



Total or average 



