74 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



takes place earlier in the season, the stems are comparatively 

 soft and fleshy, and it is not so difficult a procedure as it looks 

 in the hard woody stems I found. Nevertheless I notice that 

 the vegetable fibres are not thrust aside to more than a slight 

 extent, and many look as if they were cut across to form the 

 hole. This hole is very smooth and very circular. The egg- 

 shell in the pith, after the bug is hatched, is quite a substantial 

 colourless bag. 



When the egg hatches, it opens by an elaborate lid or 

 stopper, being pushed off, or rather out. This lid occupies the 

 whole thiclmess of the woody layer, and when pushed out leaves 

 the whole of the tube in this layer lined by egg-shell, so that it 

 is more like a stopper in a bottle than a lid. When pushed out 

 it does not fall, but remains attached to the egg by several 

 twisted films, which retain it, at a distance of about half a milli- 

 metre, in a position as if its being pushed back into its place were 

 contemplated. This stopper is of a white pith-like texture and 

 highly organized structure. It is a slightly conical tube, with a 

 diaphragm near its inner opening ; the outer surface is longi- 

 tudinally striated. The inside is impressed with hollows in 

 several irregular series, such as might be made, if it were on a 

 larger scale, by making grooves with rounded ends from the edge 

 to the bottom, whilst it was still soft material, by pressure of a 

 finger, then repeating this in a shorter series and again by 

 another, with only the finger tips within the margin. The flat 

 bottom has also a number of upright, slender processes, some- 

 times branched, half the height of the hollow they are in. 



I have not been able to find any account of the egg-laying 

 of Nabis, and one is at first rather surprised to find a car- 

 nivorous species laying its egg in plant-tissues. Herein, how- 

 ever, it is quite parallel with Nepa. Dr. Sharp (Camb. Nat. Hist, 

 vi. p. 561) refers to some Capsids that have a similar habit. 



Betula, Reigate : February, 1906. 



Explanation of Diagram. 

 Fig. 



1. Voriion oi stem, oi Clilor a jyerfoliata x 5 diams., showing disposition 



of the circles formed by the tops of eggs. 



2. More in profile to show prominence x 9, 

 3."' Section of stem showing unhatched egg x 9. 

 4.-" Section of stem showing two eggs empty x 9. 



5. Ajipearance in profile of undisturbed empty egg-shells x 9. 



6. Appearance of a hatched egg x 50. 



7. Section of lid of egg to show processes from bottom of cup x 50. 



8. Section of lid to show sculpturing of interior of cup x 50. 



All these are more or less diagrammatic, and do not profess to be drawings. 

 =!•' In smaller stems the eggs pretty well fit the pith cavity. 



