soo 



]-ated from them. She holds herself for some time immobile 

 except for one hind leg and the ovipositor and sheath ^vhich 

 move slightly from time to time, finally the egg glides slowly 

 ont nuder the sheaths and sting. After the discharge of the 

 egg, she leaves at once withont examining the egg. 



The process of oviposition occnpies two or three days 

 ordinarily, and this is followed by some days interval before 

 the next lot are ready. The eggs being large in proportion to 

 the size of the insect a gravid female has her abdomen 

 considerably distended just before oviposition. 



The nnmber of eggs laid npon a particular grnb seemed 

 in most cases to show some relation to its size, bnt this may 

 be dne to the female eating some of her own eggs, for this 

 has been observed in numerons cases where the beetle larvae 

 had become so dry as to be unsuitable for her food. Tlie 

 numljer of eggs laid in a single batch seems to run from al:)0ut 

 ten to nearly forty and a single female may lay from four to 

 .six or more batches of eggs with intervals of five to seven 

 or more days between ; my observations do not enable me 

 to state with any accuracy the number of eggs laid by a 

 ?ingle female nor her usual length of life, but probably not 

 many females lay more than 150 eggs nor live more than 

 three months. 



General Hahits. The females are exceedingly hardy in 

 their natural environment and work their way readily through 

 the bark, rotten wood, and debris produced by other insects, 

 using their stout mandibles to gnaw their way al)Oiit if neces- 

 sary. In my earlier work with them several were lost by 

 their eating their way through corks in vials in which they 

 had been confined. They are not readily killed by cyanide of 

 potassium and frequently revive after having apparently lieen 

 killed and mounted on points. The alate females do not 

 readily employ their wings in flight but will do so on occas- 

 ion, especially in the sunshine. The males are much less 

 hardy than the females and are usually dead by the time the 

 females begin oviposition. In several cases where a male was 



