30 



From the above table we see (1) that the period of incubation 

 for the egg9 varies from seven to nine and a half days, with an 

 average of eight and two fifths days; (2) that the feeding stage 

 of the larvae varies from thirty- five to forty-nine and a half days, 

 with an average of forty days; (3) that usually from one to two 

 days elapse after the larv?e are full grown before the cocoon is 

 spun; (4) that the chrysalid stage lasts from ten and a half to 

 fifteen days, with an average of thirteen days; and (5) that the 

 period from the time the eggs are deposited to the emergence of 

 the moths varie8 from fifty-nine and a half to sixty eight and a 

 half days, with an average of sixty-three and three fifths days, or 

 about nine weeks. 



Copulation takes place, in most cases, the same day the adult 

 emerges, usually in the early morning, lasting from four to five 

 hours, but oftentimes extending over a period of eight to ten 

 hours. A single female will pair several times, and a male that 

 was sf^en pairing on two different occasions on two successive d-iys, 

 on being removed to another cage, in which a freshly emerged 

 female was placed April 11, 1895, paired again the same after- 

 n'>on. The eggs deposited by this female that sam"^ night, hatched 

 just tea days later, thus proving their fertility. The female has a 

 peculiar habit of resting with the anterior end of her body some- 

 what elevated, the wings slightly spread, between which she pro- 

 jects the tip of her abdomen, as shown in the illustration at b on 

 pHge 9. Oftentimes she also extends her ovipositor from an 

 eighth to a quarter of an inch (not represented in the figure), 

 giving the abtiomen the appearance of ending in a long spike. 

 The fHinale will assume this attitude for several days, or until 

 copulation tak^s place. I have had as many as twenty five 

 females in a cage at a time, where they often remained five or six 

 days in this characteristic posi ion before any males emerged. 

 They are rather sluggish while pairing, and can be easily trans- 

 ferred from one cage to another without being separated. 



The female usually deposits her first lot of eggs the night after 

 the first copulation, and so far as my observations and experiments 

 go, they are laid at night only. The egg-laying period of a single 

 individual lasts five or six days, during which time an average of 

 about two hundred and forty eggs are deposited. In mills 

 they are usually deposited singly, but may often be found in 

 chains of eight to ten. The largest number I have succeeded in 

 getting from a single female is two hundred and seventy-one, and 

 the smallest one hundred and twenty. The total number de- 

 posited by each individual in the above experiments is listed in 

 the table. The female lives only two or three days after the eggs 

 have been deposited; and the average life of the male after 

 pairing is fmm six to seven days. 



Professor H. Landois, of Miiaster, Germany, ascertained by an 

 anatomical examination that the eight ovaries of an Ephestia 

 kuehnie la contained respectively, QQ, 79, 80, 84, 85, 87, 92, 95 eggs, 

 an aggregate of 668. 



