68 Psyche [April 



forming into the adult they fasten themselves by means of their 

 piercing mouthparts often near or on the bud of the flower, as I 

 found quite a number of shed skins at these places. 



Metamorphosis takes place usually very early in the morning as 

 on my morning examinations I always found the insects in their 

 adult stage in full color, although in one instance when I collected 

 on September 4 a male of a somewhat grayish-white, which soon 

 became yellow, then passed through brown into black in a little 

 less than half an hour. It is a very lively insect as an adult; 

 but the nymphs hardly move, as I found them resting all the time 

 on the thinner stems near the flowers, always with the head di- 

 rected downwards. This habit is also most frequently charac- 

 teristic of the adult, as I noticed on September 4 when I was vainly 

 watching them for some time, in hopes of observing one in the 

 act of oviposition. 



The adult male insect is about 3.2 mm. in length, the female 

 3.6 mm., and the colors as well as the pattern vary considera- 

 bly in both sexes. I found in one case a male with the whole 

 prothorax, except the humeral angles, shining black. In case of 

 one female the lateral marginal markings were absent, while in 

 another the anterior pair of legs of the femora were light brown. 

 The claws in living specimens are bright green. The abdomen 

 varies from bright green in some specimens, through all shades 

 to bright yellow, usually mixed with more or less bright red dor- 

 sally. The pygofer is always green, a little blackish at the apex 

 in the male; in the female the ovipositor is sometimes green but 

 generally black, the black often extending along the side of the 

 ovipositor and forming an oval marking. 



On August 20 and on the following day both sexes were col- 

 lected, the males in greater number. On September 3 and 4th I 

 collected 7 females and 5 males. On September 17 only females 

 were found, of which two were collected for observation. One 

 died on September 26 and the other was killed and both examined 

 for eggs; one containing 9, the other 13. On September 24 three 

 other females were captured for the same purpose, the first dying 

 on October 5 containing only 3 eggs, the second on October 14 

 containing 9 and the third on the 19th when 11 eggs were found; 

 in the insect I kept in captivity till December 3 I found 10 eggs. 

 On October 1 I did not succeed in finding a single insect, but on 



