History and Habits of Pityogenes. 35 
of ten days while the female was active, she laid in all 
thirty-one eggs, all of them fertile. This is considerably 
more than the average number. ‘This would make an 
average of slightly more than three eggs per day, but it is 
known that she laid few eggs during the last two days of 
this period, and it is also known that on March 25th she 
oviposited six times. 
The act of laying the egg and packing it in with frass 
was not actually observed but several observations were 
made which make it certain that the process does not differ 
materially from that observed for Hecoptogastar rugulosus 
by Gossard (1913). “A tiny egg niche had been made by 
the beetle before the burrow was opened. After some hesi- 
tation the beetle backed out of the burrow to the outside 
where she immediately turned about and backed into the 
brood chamber. Upon reaching the locality of the niche, 
she distended her abdomen and with it seemed to be feeling 
along the wall of the burrow as if hunting for the niche. 
After a few moments of exploring, the niche was located. 
The lp of the abdomen was then held within the niche and 
a single tiny, translucent egg was deposited therein and 
left standing at right angles or endwise to the burrow. The 
beetle then crawled out of the burrow and entered again, 
head first, and upon reaching the niche she covered the 
ege with fine frass.” On April ist a burrow of Pityogenes 
hopkinst was opened just as a female was completing an 
ege niche. She backed out of her egg gallery to the nuptial 
chamber, turned around and immediately reentered the egg 
gallery backward. Before depositing her egg, however, she 
seemed to become confused, either by the light or by the 
absence of the bark over her, and retreated to the nuptial 
chamber. On March 25th “burrow H” was opened just 
after the female had deposited her egg as it was in position 
in the niche but this had not yet been plugged with frass. 
The female was observed to crawl along the egg gallery, 
head first to the nuptial chamber where she immediately 
went to a pile of frass, took a quantity of this in her 
mandibles and turning around entered the burrow head 
