66 NINETEENTH REPORT STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MINNESOTA—IQ22 
mating almost immediately. The males are polygamous and_ the 
females polyandric, thus it is necessary to keep the sexes isolated 
from the time they emerge, if one wishes to control the mating of 
individuals. The female will mate within a few hours following 
the molt to the adult stage. The male usually approaches from in front, 
applies the antennae with a vibrating motion upon head and antennae 
of the female. This is followed by the male pushing with head beneath 
that of female, very soon turning to one side and applying the head 
to basal part of the female’s abdomen, raising her up from the normal 
standing position; whereupon the male turns quickly, extending the 
oedeagus to clasp with female, and if successful settles in a position 
of end to end, the bugs facing in opposite directions. The sexes will 
remain quietly in this position for hours at a time, and in the cages 
the isolated pairs were found to remain in coitu from early evening 
until late the next morning, and for successive nights during the period 
when the female was producing eggs. 
When the female is deprived of the male during a period of active 
egg production, she will, after a period of about two weeks, begin laying 
infertile eggs. In the field it has been observed that the sexes con- 
tinue mating during the warm days of fall, just prior to the time when 
frosts drive them into hibernation. ‘This raised the question whether 
it is necessary, in the preservation of the species, that the males hiber- 
nate and copulate with the females in the spring. Accordingly, during 
the latter part of September, 1921, six pairs of copulating bugs were 
isolated in jars and kept for hibernation. ‘Two of these females were 
found alive the following spring altho the males had perished. With- 
out further contact with a male, one of these females produced a mass 
of 30 eggs on June 15, 1922, which were normal in color and hatched 
on June 22. This female also laid 6 eggs on June 20, 15 eggs on June 
21, and 10 eggs on June 26, all of which hatched. It therefore becomes 
apparent that the female may occasionally carry the fertile eggs in 
her body during hibernation and deposit them the following spring. 
Length of life. Under favorable conditions, the adults which 
mature during August and September of one year may be expected 
to hibernate and live until the first part of June the following year. 
The longest lived individual of which the writer has record was a 
white female bug which emerged July 29, 1921, and lived until 
June 18, 1922; making a period of to months and 21 days as an adult, 
to which may be added 23 days of nymphal development. The usual 
length of life is illustrated by a female that hatched on July 23, 1921, 
became an adult on August 14, and lived until June 13, 1922, also a 
female that hatched on August 28, 1921, and lived until June 25, 1922: 
