22 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The eggs stand upright in a double row, usually on the upper side of a 

 twig and may be sixty or seventy in number. One female that I watched 

 laid her eggs on the upright iron standard of my garden gate. The time 

 occupied in depositing one egg varied, but was usually about four 

 minutes. Having deposited an egg on the right, the female moved 

 slightly upward and laid another on the left, touching, but slightly in 

 advance of, the first. The next egg would be deposited on the right 

 side, touching the first egg and slightly in advance of the second, and 

 so on alternately on the right and left until the double line was complete, 

 each egg standing in the angle formed by the junction of the eggs in 

 the opposite row. At first the eggs are white, but darken within a few 

 minutes. The majority are probably laid in September and October. 

 Those that I have observed were laid on October 25th. These hatched 

 on May 19th following. Another lot collected in the field hatched on 

 April 21st, and a third lot from an oak tree hatched on June 7th. The 

 little bugs when newly emerged from the egg are entirely red but harden 

 within half an hour : the legs, head and thorax becoming black, while 

 the abdomen remains a deep red, bordered by a row of black spots and 

 with a ro\v of large quadrangular black markings on the central dorsal 

 line. 



The Nymphal Stages. During the first instar the nymphs are 

 gregarious and usually remain clustered together, a habit common to 

 many species of pentatomids, and so far as I have observed, are entirely 

 vegetable feeders during this period. After the first moult, however, 

 they show a tendency to wander and commence to feed on other insects 

 when opportunity is given. The gregarious habit is abandoned during 

 the later moults. 



On April 21st. 1919, the first lot of nymphs kept under observation 

 hatched from a batch of eggs laid on an apple twig. These were 

 divided into two lots, one of which was kept at my residence while the 

 other remained at the laboratory. Petri dishes with covers were used 

 fcr l;reeding cages at first, but were soon abandoned in favour of fruit 

 jars covered with muslin, as the moisture condensed in large drops in 

 the petri dishes and drowned many of the little nymphs. 



The lot kept at the laboratory progressed ^t first much more rapidly 

 than tliose at the house. They were supplied with sprays of. young pear 

 leives. on which they were occasionally observed to feed. The first 

 moult occurred in this lot on April 30th, but those at the house did not 

 moult until May 6th. The average temperature at the laboratory was 

 several degrees higher than at the house, which partly accounts for the 

 more rapid growth of the nymphs. On May 10th, five nymphs of this 

 lot were observed to be feeding on a bud-moth larva. A nest of tent 

 caterpillars was obtained and placed in the jar, and shortly after several 

 of the nymphs were seen to be attacking these. It -was found, however, 

 that many nymphs were lost by getting entangled in the webs, also. 



