98 Messrs. Williams and Buxton on Sphodromantis guttata. 



tapers off at each end and fewer eggs are laid in the earliest 

 and latest compartments.) Thus the constructed portions 

 on one side have had this time to harden before the next 

 compartment on the same side is formed, and the pressure 

 of some of the freshly secreted material against that which 

 has already partially hardened results in the formation of 

 the cross divisions. 



The formation of the dorsal flaps and the protecting valve 

 is still somewhat obscure. It must take place just before 

 the descending movement, as only at that time is the tip 

 of the abdomen at the dorsal part of the egg mass. Further 

 observation on this point is ©eeded. When the ootheca is 

 first constructed there is not direct communication with 

 the exterior, but the passages between the flaps are filled 

 with a very delicate dried froth. The young Mantis on 

 hatching pushes through this and breaks it up. In those 

 compartments in which all the eggs have been parasitised 

 this dried froth persists. 



The construction was finished at 4.45 p.m., having 

 occupied about three hours and forty-five minutes. The 

 colour of the material when first exuded was very pale, 

 but it rapidly darkened on exposure, so that before the 

 completion of the ootheca the first-made portions were 

 much darker than the more recent part. 



On November 27 another ootheca was constructed 

 by the same female, this one being much smaller than 

 the first; probably, however, this was only due to insuf- 

 ficient feeding, as Adair (1914, p. 126) finds as many as six 

 successive ootheca laid by one individual of this same 

 species, and a dissection of the above female, which died 

 on December 9, showed many eggs still in the ovaries. 



The female had not paired, so that the eggs were in- 

 fertile. Examination has shown that they have all dried 

 up, so that parthenogenesis, so common in the allied 

 Phasmidae, apparently does not occur in this Mantis. 



Some notes on the Chalcid Podagrion pachymerum, which 

 infested some of the oothecae brought back from Algeria, 

 have already been published (Williams, C. B., 1914). 



