1904] HANCOCK : — ORCHELIMUM GLABEKRIMUM 7 1 



the egg sticking between the blades. When this happens the ovipositor is witli- 

 drawn, and turning up the tip underneath the body in a forward direction the 

 female deliberately spreads the blades apart with her mouth and seizing the offend- 

 ing egg she immediately devours it. An egg which I took away from the female 

 just as she was going through this performance was compressed transversely and 

 somewhat distorted. This seemed to show that excessive lateral pressure brought 

 to bear by the blades had caused the failure of the Q.gg to be deposited. 



It may be of interest to note that Riley ('84 Stand. Nat. Hist., p. 187, II) 

 mentions that this species oviposits in the stems of various pithy plants, and espe- 

 cially in the tassel stem of Indian corn. I have not been so fortunate thus far as 

 to observe this species ovipositing while it was in a free state of nature. 



Carnivorous Habits. 



I was once attracted to a cricket which was jumping about in a lively manner 

 in one of my vivarium jars, and when I went nearer to make out what caused the 

 disturbance I found that the cricket was frantically escaping from the depredations 

 of a female Orchelimum. She had pounced upon her mate on the earth at the 

 bottom of the jar, and seizing him by the back, near the base of the wings, she 

 then jumped on the stem of a plant, in the meantime carrying her prey crosswise 

 in her mouth. She paused here, and holding her mate's body between her front 

 legs she ate the larger portion of the soft parts, after first eating a hole in the back. 

 The manner in which this individual handled her prey indicated that the long 

 spines of the first and middle tibiae are occasionally used and connected in this 

 species with its carnivorous habits. Blatchley has recorded ('02 Orth. Indiana, 

 p. 384) the fact that the allied species, vulgare, feeds upon the bodies of small 

 moths which in some way it manages to capture, while on another occasion he 

 observed a female on the flower of a golden-rod feasting on a soldier beetle. 



Professor V. L. Kellogg, of Stanford University, will spend the coming aca- 

 demic year on leave of absence in Europe. Personal letters will be forwarded. 

 Requests for reprints of papers or for specimens, etc., should be addressed, to 

 avoid delay, to the Department of Entomology, Stanford University, Calif. 



