244 Professor Edward B. roulton on the 



and this conclusion is supported by the fact that the 

 females were often seen engaged in oviposition. 



August 81. — Jenkinson and I watched several females 

 ovipositing in the loose earth on a very hot slope just 

 outside the hotel, and in the beds of the little Alpine 

 garden. The female thrusts her abdomen deeply into the 

 earth and remains in this position for some minutes. Oti 

 two occasions a female, after withdrawing her abdomen, 

 was seen to rake the ground vigorously with her third 

 legs, and, in one case, witnessed by Jenkinson, she 

 steadied herself by holding a plant stem with her 

 mandibles. We several times dug up the earth and 

 searched for the eggs, but without success. At this date 

 I found another pair of this species in coitu, on the path 

 just below the lioteL 



GomjiJtoccnis sibericus appears to be a very general 

 feeder, and its extraordinary abundance in the immediate 

 proximity of the hotel was probably due to the presence 

 of horses' and mules' dung, and other refuse upon which 

 they fed. Every patch of dung upon the path was 

 surrounded by dozens of individuals. 



August 31. — F. Jenkinson and I watched the males pur- 

 suing the females near the hotel. It often happened that 

 when a male came up to a female he extended the max- 

 illary and labial palpi towards her, and raised himself on 

 his legs in a very characteristic and remarkable attitude. 

 At other times these movements occurred at a later stage 

 of courtship. The movement of the palpi strongly sug- 

 gested their use as organs of sense. When the female 

 ran away, as she generally did, the male pursued, always 

 trying to get in front of the female and thus stop her. 

 The rr.ale ran faster than the female, and altered his 

 direction so as to approach the female almost at right 

 angles to the course she was pursuing. After the pre- 

 liminaries of courtship — pursuit, stridulation, attitude, 

 and movement of the palpi — the male, standing beside 

 and close to the female, tries to jump on her, making a 

 curious short chirp as he does so. The attempts were, 

 however, always unsuccessful in the cases observed by us. 

 Stridulation is in this species of definite length, and ends 

 in two or three short chirps; in most cases the male then 

 instantly approaches still nearer and tries to jump on the 

 female with the short chirp already described. 



Neither Jenkinson nor I can remember the exact 



