156 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



the attention of the curious. They are more or less flattened, usually 

 of a slate-color, but sometimes inclining to brown, and are deposited 

 in two rows overlapping each other. Harris,* in a letter, (without 

 date,) written to Miss Morris, from whom he received these eggs, very 

 doubtingly referred them to the Oblong-winged Katydid, suggesting, 

 at the same time, that they might belong to the common Walking- 

 stick, {Spectrurn femoi'atum,) whose eggs, however, are quite differ- 

 ent, being smaller and spherical. 



In the first edition of his well-known work on the " Insects Inju- 

 rious to Vegetation," he speaks, in general terms, of the habit which 

 allied insects in Europe have of depositing their eggs in the ground ; 

 but in the third edition of the same work, these slate-colored, mussel- 

 shaped eggs are referred to the true or Broad-winged Katydid, while 

 those of the Oblong-winged species are said to strikingly resemble 

 them in form, size, color and arrangement. These statements have 

 misled all subsequent writers. Several years ago, I first reared the 

 Angular-winged Katydid from such eggs, (Fig. 43,) and finding others 

 somewhat broader and flatter, (Fig. 44,) very naturally inferred, from 

 what Harris said, that these might belong to the Broad-winged spe- 

 cies. But after rearing nothing but retitiervis from such eggs every 

 year since 1868, no doubt remains in my mind that all these external 

 eggs belong to this one species, and that, as stated last year, " the 

 difference in size, and especially in thickness, which is so noticeable 

 in them, depends on the variable size of the parent and on the degree 

 of maturity of the eggs." 



[Vig. 4.-..] 



jMiciiOCKiVTRUs RETiNEiiVis: — Male, wiugs oloseil. 



The females commence to oviposit early in September, and con- 

 tinue to lay at intervals until the first severe frost. The eggs are 

 [Fig. 46.] occasionally deposited during the day, but the operation 

 usually takes place at night. Selecting a twig of about 

 the size of a common goose-quill, this provident mother 

 prepares it for the reception of her eggs by biting and 

 roughening the bark with her jaws for a distance of two 

 or three inches. This bite is not gradual like that made 

 MicRocENTRus when feeding, but is sudden and vigorous, the insect chew- 



KETINERVIS: — " ftl O 7 



otfemafe°^nat^ i"S and pressing the twig each side so as to form an edge. 

 siraieniiryiThib Operation is accompanied by a sudden nervous shake 



* Correspondence, p. 241. 



