50 [August, 



which are also furnished with whitish cilia? at the broadened extremity, 

 running backwards and inwards, but not meeting in an angle. This is 

 the condition of things during the interval between the laying of two 

 eggs. When an egg is being laid, or rather, during the latter half of 

 the process, an inner transparent tube prolapses, bringing with it 

 (attached to its upper lateral margins) the two black appendages just 

 mentioned. The egg comes forward by jerks, and, after it touches 

 the glass (I am describing the process here as watched through the glass 

 cover of the pot on which the beetle was laying her eggs), there is a 

 pause of some seconds before the complete extrusion of the egg. 

 During this pause about half the egg is seen, and the ovipositor, viewed 

 from the dorsal side, is hidden by the upper valve of the pygidium. 

 Only at the final complete expulsion of the egg does the inner tube, 

 with its appendages, come down. These appendages have motions of 

 apposition with one another, and with the two chitinous portions of 

 the lower lip of the outer tube, by which the end of the egg can be 

 grasped as it were between four fingers ; and it is so grasped and 

 settled in its place, upon its side, in row with the other eggs, before 

 anything more is done. The beetle then shifts its position a little ; 

 the ovipositor (the inner tube and its appendages having been re- 

 tracted) is moved uneasily from side to side ; and, after an interval of 

 variable duration, another egg is seen coming forward by jerks to the 

 glass (or other surface on which the eggs are being deposited). The 

 whole process usually occupies something less than a minute. I reckon 

 normally seven eggs in five minutes, but the rate varies much in dif- 

 ferent individuals, and is much slower towards the end of the batch. 

 At this rate an average batch of eggs would be deposited in something 

 over half an hour. As I have said, the eggs are laid almost uni- 

 versally on that surface of the leaf which is undermost at the time ; 

 and if, in confinement, a leaf be turned over while the beetle is engaged 

 in oviposition, she will most likely walk away, and subsequently com- 

 plete the operation on the other side of the leaf, it may be shortly, or 

 it may be after an interval of several hours. One knows that it is 

 the completion of the same batch by the sum of the two parcels 

 agreeing with what was to be expected. The average number of eggs 

 in a batch I found to be about 45, but the actual number varies in 

 different females, though it is pretty constantly the same for the same 

 individual ; or rather, the alternate batches agree in number, a cir- 

 cumstance which seems to be accounted for by the alternate unbur- 

 thening of themselves by two independent ovaries. Sometimes, 

 however, both act together or in immediate succession, and a double 



