The Life History of Driliis flavcsccns. 47 



turf on June 2nd, at 11.30 a.m. She continued to move 

 restlessly about the surface till 3.30 p.m., when she dived 

 down a hole between the turf and the side of the box, and 

 did not appear again. 



A third emerged on June 2nd and paired on the turf 

 on June 4th, disappearing on the same day. 



A fourth emerged and paired on May 31st, but was not 

 put on the turf till five hours afterwards. From this date, 

 this %, like the first, was about the surface (generally 

 resting on the herbage) regularly during the daytime, but 

 always going down under the grass in the evening, until 

 June 9th. I then tried the ^ again, and she paired a 

 second time, disappearing soon afterwards on the same 

 day. 



After June 9th none of them appeared again. 



Though it is to a great extent the instinct of the $ to 

 hide herself, she seems, in fact, after emerging, to choose 

 more often some exposed position on the short herbage, 

 and to remain clinging to this for hours at a time without 

 moving. From the moment of pairing she proceeds at 

 once to make her way down under the grass (the ^ probably 

 sharing the same instinct), and after separation — i.v. after 

 about forty minutes — disappears very shortly, as it seems, 

 into the turf, where she lays her eggs and dies. The 

 failure of the first of these tour was perhaps due to the 

 absence of natural conditions in the first week. 



On June 20th I examined the turf in search of ova. 

 The body of one $ was found resting in a perpendicular 

 position between the turf and the side of the box. The 

 boily seemed half empty, but I could find no eggs that 

 had been laid. Probably this was the second $ mentioned 

 above. 



The bodies of the other two I found in the bottom of 

 the turf (i.e. two inches deep), each lying with its contents 

 emptied m a compact heap witliin a distance of half-an- 

 incii from it. Doubtless both had died very soon after 

 laying. 



The egg is nearly spherical, about 1 mm. in diameter, 

 and of a pale yellow colour. Roughly speaking, there 

 were about thirty to thirty-five eggs in each heap. 



It was a mistake to disturb them so soon, but ttie period 

 of development proved to be much longer than I expected, 

 and to leave them as they were, and unobserved, was 

 unsatisfactory. In an endeavour to preserve natural 



