120 SEVENTEENTH REporRT STATE ENToMoLoGIstT oF MInNNESoTA—1918 
cycles they become more noticeable. Apparently the character of the 
soil does not influence their distribution for they may be found on dry 
sandy hillsides and in low wet bottom lands, providing grasshopper eggs 
of one species or another are present. Every nook and crack in the 
soil is searched by the adults in their efforts to find grasshopper egg 
pods. When one is found they at once begin to dig down into it, 
doubtless aided materially by the heavy spines on the anterior edges of 
the palpi. Sometimes four or more may be found in one egg pod, 
but usually only one. The egg shells are pierced by the sharp blades of 
the mandibles and the contents sucked out until the shell collapses. 
How many eggs are necessary before the adult is fully engorged and 
ready for oviposition is not known exactly. Apparently three to four 
are sufficient. We have found this mite in the egg pods of Melanoplus 
bivittatus, Melanoplus femur-rubrum, Melanoplus atlanis, Melanoplus 
minor, and Stenobothris curtipennis. Probably the egg of any acridid 
will be eaten. It is possible that adults may subsist in part on moisture 
in soil. In cages we have secured partial engorgement and oviposition 
when the only food present was moisture in a soil rich with humus. 
While the female is entering the egg pod the males seem to be attracted 
to her, as many as three or four may be found attempting to enter the 
same burrow after the female. Actual mating of the sexes has not 
been observed. The female engorges to twice its previous size and be- 
comes so swollen that the typical grooves on the body nearly disap- 
pear. The male does not engorge to such an extent. As soon as the 
female is full fed she excavates a smooth walled chamber not far from 
the egg pod where she fed and deposits her eggs after an interval of 
nine to twelve days. These chambers are half an inch to an inch below 
the surface of the soil. The eggs are bright orange color and very 
conspicuous against the dark soil. They can usually be found from late 
May to early June. Various masses of eggs in our breeding cages con- 
tained from three hundred to seven hundred eggs; their delicacy and 
the tenacity with which they are glued together makes accurate count- 
ing difficult. An average of four hundred to five hundred eggs is prob- 
ably correct. In twenty-four to thirty days the eggs hatch. Previous 
to hatching, when the embryos are twelve to fourteen days old, the outer 
shell of the egg splits and the legs of the embryo project upward in a 
more or less conical manner thru the rent in the shell, still enclosed by 
the inner membrane. As soon as hatched the six-legged larvae crawl 
about rapidly in search of grasshoppers to which they may attach. 
Larvae which have just crawled upon grasshopper nymphs or adults 
may be found from late June to mid July, altho a few will be met with 
