134 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



" No sooner is the ovipositor withdrawn into the abdomen than, the 

 moth runs up to the top of the pistil, uncoils her pollen-bedecked 

 tentacles, thrusts them into the stigmatic opening, and works her 

 head vigorously as I have previously described — the motion being 

 mostly up and down and lasting several seconds. This carrying of the 

 pollen to the stigma generally follows every act of oviposition, so that 

 where ten or a dozen eggs are consigned to a single pistil, the stigma 

 will be so many times be-pollened. The ends of the tentacles, which 

 are most setose and spiny, and which are always curled into the pol- 

 len-mass when not uncoiled, must necessarily carry a number of pol- 

 len grains each time pollination takes place ; and I have noticed a 

 gradual diminution in the size of the collected mass, corresponding^ 

 no doubt, to the work performed, which is indicated by the rubbed and 

 worn appearance of the individual — the freshest specimens always 

 having the largest loads. 



" While oviposition is generally followed (and not preceded, as I 

 formerly supposed) each time by pollination, yet the former some- 

 times takes place twice, thrice or oftener without the latter being per- 

 formed ; and I suspect that the converse of this is equally true. 



"Although often marking the exact point at which the puncture 

 was made, it is so very fine and the fruit tissue so soft and succulent^ 

 that I never succeeded in tracing the passage to the locus of the egg 

 until I dipped the pistil in ink. If carefully done, without bruising 

 the surface or allowing the ink to run in at the stigma, the fruit, by 

 this operation, will be discolored only where the ink has followed the 

 recent puncture, which may then be traced by means of a lens ; though 

 by extraordinary practice and manipulation it might doubtless be 

 traced under the microscope, without such aid. The egg is very nar- 

 row and elongate, soft, flexile, rather translucent, pointed anteriorly, 

 and of the exact color of its surrounding. It lies curved in the ova. 

 rian cavity, always on the rounded side next the primary dissepiments 

 (in the cases I have noticed), and with the anterior end for the niost 

 part close to the placenta. These facts are best ascertained a day or 

 two after the fruit is plucked, when, in the ink-dipped specimens, a 

 sunken black cicatrice forms around the mouth of the puncture, and 

 the ovarian cavity enlarges by the shrinking of the adjoining tissues. 

 I have little doubt that the egg increases in bulk before hatching, 

 under the influences of impregnation and endosmosis, and Dr. Engel- 

 mann tells me that he has been able to trace the embryo larva under 

 the extremely delicate egg-covering, and to observe it curled up at 

 the anterior 'end of the egg, which greatly enlarges. This larva hatches 

 on the fourth or fifth day after the laying of the egg, and usually 

 commences feeding between two ovules, which, in consequence of its 



