428 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



tact with the underside of the first and second basal segments of the 

 flagellum of the male antennae. The act of raising the antennae seems 

 to be that of assent, for copulation always follows this act. The 

 male now shifts his position backward and grasping the abdomen and 

 ■wangs of the female with his fore and middle tarsi he leans backward 

 and resting partially on his wing tips bends his abdomen between his 

 hind legs which rest on the branch, and beneath the wing tips of the 

 female and copulation takes place. Often a number of attempts are 

 made before copulation finally takes place and this lasts from seven 

 to sixteen seconds, the average length of time being from eight to eleven 

 seconds. 



During the act of copulation the female may stand quietly but 

 usually walks, dragging the male with her. 



After copulation takes place, the male again mounts the female 

 and, drawing the antennae of the female beneath and behind him as 

 previously, the antennae of the female having remained erect during 

 copulation, usually stands quietly at first, occasionally moving his 

 feet and gently patting her antennae with his. Later he becomes rest- 

 less and flits and fans his wings and finally leaves her, having stayed 

 on her back from three to six minutes or more. 



Polygamy and Polyandry 



Emerging males and females were confined separately before copu- 

 lation could take place and were then used to ascertain if the males 

 would copulate more than once. A male and a female were confined 

 together and copulation took place. The fertilized female was then 

 removed and an unfertilized female substituted and the male readily 

 copulated again, thus showing that they are polygamous. 



The females that had been fertilized in the previous experiments 

 were confined with males which had not copulated and these were under 

 observation for two to three hours but copulation did not take place. 

 Again often three or four males will attempt to copulate with one fe- 

 male and violent struggles take place among them, but in the cases 

 observed only one male finally copulated with the female. 



These last experiments indicate that polyandry is not, or is not the 

 usual case. 



OVIPOSITION 



The few cases of ovi position observed took place in young scales 

 which had just formed a- scale covering. In these cases the parasite 

 crawled over the material on which she was placed until she found a 

 young scale. This was examined by tapping it with the antennae. 

 She then turned back to the scale and thrust her ovipositor downward 



