91 2 rRncKEDI\GS of the TIIIIiD EXTdMdl.OGICAl, ilEETIXG 



where the disturbance is felt. The egg mass in some cases is fairly big 

 and the parent is not able to cover the whole mass while it sits over it. 

 In one case where I got a groujj of eggs collected from a tree with the 

 mother mounting tuard over them, I observed that, while those eggs 

 well covered by the parent's body retained their normal colour, those at 

 the edge and away from the mother's reach developed a dark tinge and 

 eventually in about two days minute black wasps* emerged from the 

 eggs instead of bug larva?. Evidently the parent resting on the egg- mass 

 serves to some extent as a preventive against the eggs getting parasi- 

 tized. f A similar case of parental care is described in the Transactions 

 of the Entomological Society for 1904 by Dodd in the case of another 

 Pentatoniid. Tedocoris lineola. var. bnnksi, D(.n. 



In from five to seven days the eggs hatch ; all the young ones do not 

 emerge together. An interval of several hours intervenes between the 

 liatcliing out of the first nymph and the opening of the last few eggs of a 

 group. 



First inslar. Length 1-5 mm. The tiny larva has at this stage a 

 roughly oval shape with the upper surface convex from above. The 

 antennas and limbs are comparatively well developed ; the distal joint 

 of the antenna is slightly swollen. The rostrum extends a'most to the 

 tip of the abdomen along the ventral side. The general colour is orange ; 

 eyes bright scarlet ; antenuEe, rostrum and legs transparent brown. In 

 about half an hour after emergence the colour of the limbs, thorax and 

 the dorsal region of the abdomen changes to a paler hue. Two fairly 

 distinct and one faint dark patches appear on the abdomen. All the 

 lai'vse coming out of one egg-batch remain feeding gregariously on the 

 fruit or the leaf surface for a pretty long time — in some cases even up to ' 

 the second or third moult. During the first stage the creature is quite 

 helpless, the slightest external disturbance often affecting it very much. 



Second inslar. Length 3 nun. Head, antennae, legs, rcstrum, con- 

 nexival spots and transverse bands across abdomen get a shiny bluish 

 brown colour. The head and thorax get a metallic greenish tinge, the 

 abdomen becomes pinlcish ; the antenna! joints are pinkish proximally, 

 connexivum blui.sh black. Three transverse patches of blue black colour 

 are found across the abdomen dorsally ; of these two one is dumb-bell- 

 shaped. The general shape of the body becomes changed due to a ten- 

 dency on the part of the anterior portion of the body to be di'awn forward. 



* This parasite appears to be same as TrUnoiniis iiidi, Girault, found on Pentatomid 

 egg.s. 



t This fact has also besn mentioned by Fletcher in his S'>titli Imliiin Insect/, page 34, 

 figure 17. 



