OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 133 



with extensile ovipositors, which enable them to thrust their eggs 

 into crevices and other orifices, I know of none which actually punc- 

 ture, nor have I been able to discover any trace of punctures leading 

 to eggs. 



' Neither have I been able to discover^the egg in situ ; which is 

 not to be wondered at, however, as when examined in the female ab- 

 domen it is found to be long, narrow, soft and flexible, and of the 

 exact color of the flesh of the young fruit. The ovipositor is so very 

 fine and extensile that it may be thrust into the most minute and nar- 

 row passage.' 



" Analogy has proved an unreliable guide in this instance, as, in- 

 deed, it often does in natural science ; while the curious $ Pronxiha 

 adds one more to the anomalies which belong to her. She does 2yunc- 

 tuve the young fruit and convey her eggs into it from its side. 



" The Yucca flowers are fully opened and perfect during a single 

 evening and night only, and it is during this, the first night of bloom- 

 ing, that eggs are consigned to the somewhat prismatic pistil. The 

 pollen grains are not so often expelled, to fall on the inside of the 

 flower, as I had been led to suppose; but almost always remain in an 

 entire lump on the contracted and curled anthers. The moth, conse- 

 quently, has no difficulty in accumulating her little load of pollen, for 

 a single anther furnishes nearly the requisite amount. 



" Once equipped with this important commodity, she may be seen 

 either crawling over or resting within the flower. From time to time 

 she makes a sudden start, deftly runs around and among the stamens, 

 and anon takes position with the body between and the legs strad- 

 dling some two of them — her head turned toward the stigma. As the 

 terminal halves of the stamens are always more or less recurved, she 

 generally has to retreat between two of them until the tip of her ab- 

 domen can reach the pistil. As soon as a favorable point is reached — 

 generally just below the middle — the lance-like sheath of the oviposi- 

 tor, which consists of four converging, corneous bristles, is thrust into 

 th%soft tissue, held there a few seconds while the Qgg is conducted 

 to its destination, and then withdrawn by a series of up and down 

 movements. So intent is she upon this work that after the evipositor 

 once penetrates the pistil the whole perigon may be detached, some 

 of the encumbering petals and stamens removed, the insect brought 

 within the focus of a good lens, and all her movements observed to the 

 greatest advantage, without disturbing her. In this way I have been 

 able to watch the consignment of hundreds of eggs, and to admire the 

 delicacy and elasticity of the ovipositor proper, which issues from the 

 setaceous sheath in a silk-like thread, almost invisible to the naked 

 eye, and as long as the terminal abdominal joint; and which stretches 

 and bends according as the body is raised or lowered. 



