484 Mr. F. P. Dodd's Notes on 



watched her place several eggs against a number already 

 laid. I paid particular attention to this insect, visiting 

 her myself every second or third day, and sending a boy 

 to the spot when I did not go. The twenty-third day 

 was missed, but upon the twenty-fourth (July 22nd, 1903) 

 the little ones were out, and grouped a couple of inches 

 above the egg-shells, and the parent had moved a little 

 below ; this is quite usual, as the young ones begin to 

 break through, the mother backs an inch or so away from 

 the egg mass and stays there for some hours (long after 

 the last egg has hatched), when she departs, leaving the 

 small bugs to take care of themselves. The young are 

 scarlet when they emerge, but within a couple of hours 

 they become banded with blue-black, in a few days they 

 have changed to almost wholly deep bluish-green, with 

 several small, dull reddish patches ; there is then little 

 alteration in their colour until they are full grown. 



The eggs number from about sixty to one hundred; they 

 arc of a rich salmon colour when deposited, "but in a few 

 days commence to assume a dull purplish tint. For some 

 days the larvae group in a mass when at rest, at times in a 

 slightly conical heap, and keep much together until well 

 grown. 



Apparently the mothers never leave their eggs tem- 

 porarily, any that I have met with unprotected were quite 

 abandoned. At different times I had altogether about 

 twenty mother bugs, and they generally remained faithful 

 to their charges ; when one did depart before the young 

 emerged it was doubtless owing to my presence ; for they 

 were upon my table, and my coming and going, and various 

 movements, naturally would have the effect of disturbing 

 them. After leaving, a mother would not mount guard 

 again, no matter how gently I induced her to walk upon 

 the twig she had left. 



It is absolutely certain that the "broody" bugs remain 

 foodless during the whole period of three weeks or more 

 of " sitting," they occupy the same position always, and 

 various investigations have failed to reveal any punctures 

 in the twigs in front of them ; moreover, there were 

 several mothers with eggs upon small trees close to the 

 food plants, two of which were hard-wooded eucalypts, 

 without tender shoots at the time ; the sap of these, even 

 if it were tapped by the beaks of the insects, would 

 scarcely be to their taste. Two of the females which 1 



