24 Journal New York Entomological Society. [^'°'- >^xv. 



the photuri, and were able to cling firmly to weeds, etc. The latter 

 are very nimble runners and restless insects, so that the sexes should 

 readily find one anotltfer. 



When captured or roughly handled Photuris frequently exudes a 

 pale honey yellow fluid from between the last coxal joints; this 

 "blood" likewise exudes when the elytra are cut. In Photums, El- 

 lychnia and Lucidota the fluid is whitish and more viscous and flows 

 even where the elytra may be flexed. The exudation is probably 

 protective. The female oviposits for several nights and requires an 

 abundance of food for her sustenance and for the development of 

 the eggs which are in several stages of growth in her ovaries. Her 

 appetite, to say nothing of cannibalism, is worthy of note. The male, 

 on the other hand, seems to be a sparing eater. On several occasions 

 a female was discovered perched upon some convenient stem, leaf, 

 or upon the ground, devouring a male Photinus scintUlaiis. One 

 evening six females were disturbed at such meals. The fact that the 

 victims were always males, though the females were nearly as abun- 

 dant in this locality; and that the feeders were invariably females, 

 strongly suggests that the weak Photinus males were drawn to their 

 untimely ends by the lure of the greenish-yellow light of the female 

 Photuris. When bottled up with Photinus they would readily devour 

 the latter, despite its active exudations. When confined in the labora- 

 tory, a female would frequently overcome and devour a male of her 

 own species, less often she would attack one of her own sex and cling 

 tenaciously to her actively running prey. The males would not feed 

 in captivity. 



Oviposition was not observed in the field and was seen but once 

 in the laboratory. The female thrusts her long ovipositor a few 

 millimeters into the soil to lay the sticky, pale yellowish tgg. Eggs 

 laid in the laboratory, or better, by specimens confined in shady 

 places out-of-doors, were deposited in the soil or among the roots of 

 grass, either singly or in small groups. The tgg, while not constant 

 in size, averages about 0.784 by 0.677 "^^n- Its pale yellow color 

 serves to distinguish it from the whitish o^gg of Photinus and Ellych- 

 nia. Under a hand lens it is polished, under a high magnification it 

 has a finely dotted appearance owing to the presence of a thin mem- 

 brane which contains oil-like globules and gives it the adhesive prop- 

 erties. When first laid the egg is soft and often more or less flat- 



