10 THE RICE GRASSHOPPER 



chamber. Following the extrusion of the iirst egg, conies 

 another period of convulsive movement on the part of the 

 valves with the extrusion of more frothy material and these 

 two processes (egg-laying and formation and deposition 

 of frothy cement material) alternate until the oviposition 

 is completed. 



The above description differs from the account given 

 by Kiley, and it is interesting to quote his description for 

 comparison. He states : " The process has never been 

 accurately described by other writers and the general 

 impression is that eggs are extruded from between the 

 distended hooks or valves. If we could manage to watch 

 a female from the time the bottom of her hole is mois- 

 tened by the sebific fluid, we should see the valves all 

 brought together, when an egg would pass down the ovi- 

 duct along the ventral side and, guided by a little finger- 

 like style, pass in between the horny valves (which are 

 admirably constructed not only for drilling but also for 

 holding and conducting the egg to its appropriate place) 

 and issue at their tips amid the mucus fluid already 

 spoken of." 



It appears highly probable that Kiley overlooked the 

 first stage in the deposition of the egg, where the valves 

 are separated as described above, and this can be readily 

 understood, on the one hand, from the fact that this stage 

 is of very short duration and, on the other hand, from the 

 fact that Kiley's observations were made on grasshoppers 

 removed from their holes during oviposition. As a matter 

 of fact, the eggs are at first partially extruded between 

 the two pairs of valves, so the earlier observations of 

 Burmeister and others are only partially incorrect. 



The eggs are arranged with a certain degree of order 

 in the egg-mass, although the arrangement is by no means 

 perfectly regular. The accompanying figures (Plate I, 

 Fig. 1 and Plate II, Fig. 5) bhow its character. These 

 bear some resemblance to the figures given by Eile}' 

 for Melanoplus spretus, the arrangement being, however, 

 not so regular as that indicated in his figures which are, 

 doubtless, diagrannnatic. When we come to consider the 

 orientation of the mass, however, we find conditions exactly 

 opposite to those figured by Riley. According to his 

 figures, the first eggs are deposited towards the anterior 

 side of the burrow, the succeeding ones being placed 



