EMB1A MAJOR FEOM THE HIMALAYAS. 181 



the form of a series of irregular polygonal areas bounded by very thick walls (fig. 9). 

 The inside diameter of these areas, the measurements being taken between opposite faces, 

 varies from - 012--018 mm. 



The number of eggs deposited by each female was found to vary from about 60 to 100. 

 The eggs laid by eleven females, each inhabiting a separate nest, were counted, and their 

 numbers were as follows :— 59, 69, 70, 71, 73, 77, 79, 82, 97, 98, and 106 respectively. 

 Oviposition takes place within the tunnels of the nests. In those instances where a nest 

 is occupied by more than one female, the latter keep their eggs separate and apart from 

 those of their companions. Each female deposits her eggs all together in an irregular 

 heap loosely bound by fine silken threads. Additional threads also secure the eggs to 

 the wall of the tunnel. The incubation period was found to vary from three weeks to 

 one month, or a little loDger, according to the prevailing climatic conditions. 



Between June 20th and July 4th, I visited the locality where Embia major occurs, 

 but after a prolonged search was unable to discover any eggs. On the latter date I had 

 to leave the locality and travel to Dehra Dun. I brought along with me, in a small zinc 

 breeding-cage, two females and two males. The insects were afterwards separated as 

 two pairs, comprising a male and a female each, and placed in separate vessels along 

 with some soil and clumps of grass. The vessels employed were a pair of crystallising 

 dishes used by chemists, each dish being covered by a circular metal plate and kept in a 

 moderately cool room out of the direct rays of the sun. These females commenced 

 depositing their ova on July 9th and 10th. The first insect hatched out on August 1st, 

 one hatched out on August 4th, three more on August 5th, and the remainder were all 

 hatched by August 7th, the incubation period in these instances varying between 23 

 and 30 days. During the process of development the eggs did not undergo any change 

 of colour. During the second week in August 1912, I again had occasion to visit the 

 Naini Tal district, and devoted one afternoon (August 8th) to an examination of some 

 thirty nests of this insect. In every nest females, along with their ova, were in evidence. 

 Except in three nests, where a few first-stage larvae were found, none of the eggs had 

 hatched out. Dehra Dun is situated at the foot of the Himalayas, at an altitude of 

 2200 feet and has a correspondingly higher mean temperature. This higher temjierature 

 accounts for the captive larvae emerging at an earlier date than in their usual habitat. 



Eour batches of ova were brought from Sat Tal, and from these eleven specimens of a 

 new species of parasite of the family Scelionidae, belonging to the genus Embidobia, 

 Ashni., were bred out in Dehra Dun. This parasite, when it is about to emerge, eats 

 its way out of the egg by gnawing a hole through the chorion, towards the end of the 

 egg opposite to that which bears the operculum (PL 38. fig. 12). 



During the incubation period the female Embia constantly guards her eggs, resting 

 with them lying beneath her body. A more detailed account of this instinct is given 

 on p. 189. 



