No. 3.] ALLOLOBOPHORA FOETIDA. 485 
chitinous consistency, the slime-tube loses its slime-like char- 
acter and elasticity, can be easily torn and separated from the 
cocoon, and finally entirely disintegrates. Fig. 4 shows a 
slime-tube around a cocoon, probably containing eggs in the pro- 
nuclear stages. The tube was found torn away from one end 
of the cocoon, and its tube-like character is shown by the fact 
that parts are telescoped into each other. Sometimes the 
tubes can be turned completely inside out, like the finger of a 
glove. The time required for the disappearance of the slime- 
tube depends largely upon the character of the earth in which 
it is deposited. I have been able to preserve it many hours, 
and again it will disintegrate in two or three hours. Some- 
times a remnant will be found adhering to a cocoon containing 
eggs in the second and third cleavage stages ; but as a rule, 
there is only a part of the slime-tube left around those cocoons 
containing eggs in the first cleavage stages. 
The persistence of the slime-tube until the cocoon has 
acquired its chitinous character suggests that it may have a 
protective value for the freshly deposited cocoon. 
As a rule, in cocoons opened just after deposition, the 
maturation spindle is at the metaphase and either at the 
center of the egg or at the periphery (Fig. 5). In these 
cocoons only an occasional egg shows a spermatozoén just 
penetrating the periphery. Of the many cocoons either seen 
deposited or found while still white and soft, I have preserved 
the eggs from thirty-one, and only two out of this number are 
exceptions to the above rule. In one of these exceptional 
cases all the eggs of the cocoon contained a first cleavage 
spindle. In the other, one of two freshly deposited cocoons 
found side by side contained odcytes of the second order. This 
was not due to delay in opening the cocoon, for these eggs 
were found in the cocoon first opened, while the second 
contained the usual odcytes of the first order (Fig. 5). I 
have preserved many freshly deposited cocoons with a view 
to testing the rate of development, but this uncertainty as to 
1 It is impossible to confound the first maturation spindle with the first cleavage 
spindle; for in normal eggs the latter is always accompanied by pronounced polar 
rings. 
