158 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



one over the other, but, rather, one under the other : i. e., each suc- 

 ceeding pair having their ends thrust in between the tops of the 

 preceding pair, the teeth at the end of the ovipositor helping to 

 crowd the end into place. 



The length of time required from the commencement of the fret- 

 ting of the twig to the proper placing of the egg varies all the way 

 from 5 to 20 minutes. Sometimes, as for instance where a bud comes 

 in the way, the preparation of the twig will require a comparatively 

 long time, and after the ovipositor is brought up and a futile attempt 

 made to place the egg, it will be let down again and the work of pre 

 paring the twig more vigorously prosecuted a second time. 



The number of eggs laid at one time varies from two to thirty, 

 the first batches containing more than those deposited later in the 

 season. Each female produces from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred, or perhaps more, and I have known them to lay on the edge 

 of a leaf, or of a piano-cover, or along a piece of cord. 



These eggs, as already remarked, are rather flat when laid, but 

 become more swollen, so that they have a narrower look as they ap- 

 proach the hatching period in spring. During the early part of May. 

 the embryo larva — which lies straight in its egg, completely filling it, 

 with the legs bent, up as in a pupa, and the long antennas curling 

 around them — attains its full development, and after hours of tedious 

 contracting and expanding movements, manages to burst the egg open 

 at its top or exposed end, along the narrow edge, and generally about 

 half-way down. Through this opening young Katy slowly emerges, 

 undergoing a molt during the process, and leaving its first skin, in a 

 crumpled white mass, attached to the empty bivalvular egg-shell. 

 Including hind legs and antennae it measures, at this time, rather more 

 than an inch in length, the body alone being one-eighth of an inch 

 long ; and in contemplating it, one cannot but wonder how the long, 

 stiff legs and great length of antennae, together with the plump body, 

 could so recently have been compressed into the comparatively small 

 shell to which we see it clinging. 



In from ten to twenty minutes after hatching, these little beings 

 essay their first leaps, and soon begin to eat with avidity. They feed 

 with almost equal relish upon a great variety of foliage, but I have 

 found that when reared upon very succulent leaves, such as lettuce, 

 cabbage, purslain and the like, they are less hardy, and do not attain 

 so great an age as when nourished upon more ligneous food, as the 

 leaves of Oak, Apple or Cherry. 



The larval life of these insects lasts from seven to eight weeks. 

 Shortly before the change to puptTe, which takes place toward the end 

 of June, the rudiments of the wings and of the sexual organs may be 



