from the large outdoor cages were depended upon in determining 

 the length of the life-cycle. 



OVIPOSITION AND HANDLING OF EGGS. 



•Some difficulty was experienced in determining the possible dura- 

 tion of oviposition by female adults. When beetles were confined 

 "en masse," that is, a number in a cage or jar, there was usuall.y 

 a heavy mortality, which may have been due to the fungus disease, 

 Metarrhizium. being able to communicate itself from one beetle to 

 another. 



The obstacle to confining females singly for oviposition may be 

 realized when one takes into account the difficulty of giving the 

 beetle sufficient living food material and freedom of movement, and 

 at the same time restricting the amount of soil to a quantity not 

 too large to sift and examine in a reasonable length of time. Beetles 

 had to be confined in numbers, and the earth examined at frequent 

 intervals, to give oviposition records value. 



At first beetles were confined over potted plants; but it was 

 fouiid too difficult to extract eggs from among roots without crush- 

 ing them. Also, tlie effort of supplying a fresh plant for each 

 l)eet]e at each examination of the soil was considerable. 



Later experience showed that a beetle requires neither to fly nor 

 climb in order to maintain a fairly normal existence in confinement. 

 A method devised was to confine each female in a small glass bat- 

 tery jar, four inches in diameter by six inches high, in the bottom 

 of wliich was placed two inches of moist earth, sifted to a fineness 

 somewhat smaller than the size of the eggs, so that the latter were 

 easily sifted out. The soil was packed lightly with the hand, and 

 a few strips or sections of banana leaf put in above the soil as food 

 for the beetle, being first dipped in water, after which they remained 

 green for two or three days and were relished by the beetles. 



It was not found necessary to confine adults in pairs in order 

 to secure fertile eggs. There was no advantage in doing so, as copu- 

 lation never took place to the writer's knowledge in small jars. 

 Beetles collected immediately following copulation remained fertile 

 for two months or more. No cases were observed of infertile eggs 

 from females confined alone, except those from reared females, which 

 of r-ourse had never copulated. 



The first method devised for rearing the eggs was to place each 

 out' in a small pit made with the head of a match in the f^at side 

 of a small ball of damp soil or mud, and to press a tier of these 



G3 



