LEPIDIOTA FRENCH I. 47 



Feeding Ilahits and Food FJa}ifs. — In their native habitat, in the 

 open forest, these insects nsnall.y feed on the foliage of the Moreton Bay 

 ash and bloodwood, bnt where they occur in fields of sugar-cane far 

 removed from these trees they have evidently been able to change their 

 habit, deriving what little food they require directly from the cane-leaves 

 (Plate III, fig. 2). I have gradually come to this conclusion because 

 the beetles continue to infest certain fields near Gordonvale after all 

 possible feeding-trees have been cleared away. And, as further evidence,. 

 I have found the beetles on the cane during the night, and they are there 

 on the same leaves very early in the morning when they fiy and re-enter 

 the soil. Only occasionally, however, is there any indication that they 

 have eaten the leaf upon which Hiey have been sitting during the night. 

 These observations, coupled with the fact that the alimentary canal is 

 usualh' found nearly empt.y when beetles are dissected, point to the 

 conclusion that they require much less nourisliment tluin do the greybacks. 



Ovipositing. — During the season 1920-21 I was able to give ranch 

 more attention to this important phase of the subject; thus a considerable 

 mass of data has lieen added to our files. In the present paper I will 

 be able to summarise only the more important of these. 



Most important, perhaps, is the discovery that the females of this 

 species apparently have the eggs well developed and almost ready to 

 lay when they emerge. Then, too, Ave have never known before that 

 they continued to lay one set after another, during the whole of their 

 aerial existence. And we had no definite knowledge of how or where 

 the eggs were deposited in the field. 



30th November, 1920, I dissected a lot of females of this species. 

 and was surprised to find the eggs in every case nearly ripe, since the 

 first emergence had occurred only two days before. The egg-tubes were 

 dissected out, and I found that the general appearance of the ovaries 

 was very similar to that already described for the greybacks (see 

 Plate IV). Each of the tubes usually had two developed eggs and a 

 smaller one ; hence it woidd appear that at least twenty-four eggs would 

 be laid in a set. I made a ((inirra lucida sketch of one of the tubes, 

 which shoAved an egg alreadv iiassing downward to be laid (Plate XIII, 

 %. 2). 



5th December, I made further dissections of beetles taken in cop., 

 and, as I expected, found that some of them had evidently laid, although 

 this Avas only a Aveek after the first emergence had been noted. The 

 ovaries, in such cases, had a peculiar appearance, and the egg-tubes 

 Avere considerably shortened (Plate XIII, fig. 8). In other specimens 

 the eggs Avere still retained, but in some they had passed down the 

 tubes (Plate XIII, fig. 1). 



13th December, sixteen females taken //; cap. wt re dissected, and 

 evidently fourteen of these had laid, for only two contained ripe eggs; 

 all the others had practically empty egg-tubes. 



26tli December, mating beetles Avere more al)undant than usual, so 

 I dissected thirty-eight females taken in cop. Among these I found the 

 first conclusive evidence that the females continued their activities after 

 they had laid their first batch of eggs. TAventy-one of this lot had empty 

 egg-tul3es, and in most of these the body-fat had been absorbed, and 

 the alimentary canal almost invariably contained only a dark-coloured 

 liquid, Avith no solid food. Furthermore, in one case there Avas a single 

 ripe egg in the vagina, Avhile all the egg-tubes Avere emptv, except for 

 the small ova next to the germaria. This proved definitely tliat they 

 continued to mate after laying, and suggested that they probably Avould 



