at 7:06 P. ^L. the tiight was at its height at 71."i, and eeased at about 

 7 :26. The duration of flight was thus twenty minutes. Perhaps it 

 would be somewhat lengthened under outdoor eonditions, with no 

 screening to confine the radius of flight. 



No tests were made to determine the usual distance of flight, but 

 it is probably limited largely l\v the proximity of agreeable food 

 plants, as is the case with the larger species. 



This species has the habit, common to all of the Maj^-beetles, of 

 flying to lighted lamps and electric lights in the early evening. At 

 Santa Rita, where the experiments were conducted, it was less com- 

 monly taken at light than the larger species, even during its season 

 of greatest abundance, from March to June. 



Copulation. 



. Records of the time and duration of copulation were made on the 

 same night as the flight observations. The time of joining and separ- 

 ating of three pairs M-as as follows: (1) started 7:17, ended 8:05, 

 lasted 48 minutes: (2) started 7:22. ended 8:14, lasted 52 minutes; 

 (3) started before 7:24, ended 8:12, lasted over 48 minutes. 



From these it appears that copulation usually" takes place, at this 

 time of year, between the hours of 7 :15 and 8 :15, and has an average 

 duration of about three-quarters of an hour. 



OviPOSITION. 



To determine the length of life of the adult, the length of egg- 

 laying period and the average number of eggs laid hy a female, six- 

 teen pairs of adults of this species were confined separately in jars 

 and fed regularly until their death. They were fed upon strips of 

 banana leaf. Twelve pairs were confined on Marcli 19, the other 

 four pairs on April 6. The female of one pair died within three 

 days, so that the records of only fifteen pairs are used in the calcula- 

 tions. The last female died on May 18. 



From the fifteen females, the average length of life of the female 

 adult was found to be 36 days. The longest life was 55 days, or 

 somewhat under two months. 



The average length of egg-laying period (the time included be- 

 tween the dates of laying of the first and last eggs) was 19.47 days; 

 the maximum, 41 days; the minimum, 2 days. 



The average number laid by a female Avas 15.6 eggs. The maxi- 

 mum number laid by one female was 40 eggs, which were laid in a 

 period of 36 days, a rate of somewhat over 1 egg per day. 



158 



