﻿162 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



form the most natural and most favorable nidi. Balbiani describes 

 the impregnated egg in detail as 0.28 mm. long and 0.13 wide, and as 

 mine were somewhat longer they probably vary slightly in size. It 

 gradually acquires an olive green tint, speckled with minute darker 

 dots. It is polished, translucent; and the shell is finely reticulate with 

 hexagonal meshes. This egg is always laid on the more solid and per- 

 manent parts of the vine under the bark that is becoming loose. It 

 remains in these positions during the winter and with the renewal of 

 vine growth in Spring gives birth, as from analogy we knew it would 

 do, to the wingless mother louse which starts anew the virginal repro- 

 duction. In all essential characters it is like the normal root-inhabit- 

 ing, wingless, virginal mother, but is intermediate in size and form 

 between this last and the true sexual female when compared at the 

 moment of hatching. Balbiani gives the length as 42 mm. and the 

 width 0.16 mm. 



The habits of this mother which, with increased vitality starts the 

 somewhat complicated cycle of the species' changes, have not yet 

 been observed, but she doubtless seeks the roots to there surround 

 herself with eggs, resting no doubt for the most part just at the butt 

 of the vine ; while an occasional individual, where the conditions are 

 favorable, may settle on a tender leaf, and found the gall-inhabiting: 

 type. 



These observations of Balbiani's establish one thing, which is, that 

 the impregnated egg hibernates before hatching, and they would 

 seem to indicate that the third conclusion which I drew (p. 161) is 

 erroneous. But I yet strongly incline to believe that further observa- 

 tions will prove that, as there suggested, the hibernation of the im- 

 pregnated eggs will prove exceptional and that they mostly hatch the 

 same year that they are laid. The eggs which I obtained having failed, 

 and feeling much interest in verifying in this country the interesting 

 discoveries made by Balbiani in France, I have perseveringly sought 

 for the impregnated e^g in our own vineyards the past winter. I have 

 most carefully examined many a vine from " top to stern " myself, 

 and have employed Mr. Theo. Pergandy, who is well trained in the 

 examination of minute objects, during nearly every mild day to in- 

 spect vines in vineyards in which I knew the Phylloxera to occur. 

 1 have had whole vines dug up from the Bushberg vineyardo, and 

 collected large quantities of the loose bark for careful examination 

 and inspection in-doors ; and while I have been rewarded by some 

 interesting discoveries, and have obtained the eggs of a large number 

 of other insects, I have failed to find the first Phylloxera egg, though 

 in several instances I have found what may be the empty shell. This 



