170 



before and after the dates on which I have recorded them, but, 

 being somewhat scarce, have been overlooked. They are more 

 abundant on the trees, however, in September than at any other 

 time and that is the season when oviposition is most rapid. 



In disposition, this beetle is one of the shy- 

 est of the group and while engaged in egg-laying 

 is easily frightened from her work. I have 

 watched oviposition on three different occasions. 

 Each time the side of the acorn was attacked. 

 Twice the beetle bored through the edge of the 

 cup into the kernel and the third time she made 

 ner entering puncture through the shell only, 

 just beyond the border of the cup. 



In preparing thus a place for its egg, the insect first bores 

 a hole directly into the nut which reaches almost to the center 

 of the kernel. It then makes several branches, beginning in the 

 kernel and leading obliquely away from the first opening. This 

 done, it makes another gallery which leaves the original opening 

 just at the point where the kernel and shell meet. This gellery 

 extends into the kernel but curves gradually until it arrives at 

 the inner surface of the shell at a point about one-fifth of an 

 inch from where it began. Into the farthest extremity of this 

 curved gallery the beetle places a single egg and then departs. 

 In one case the side-gallery in which the egg was placed was 

 directed toward the base of the nut so that the egg rested beneath 

 the cup and in the other two cases it extended toward the point 

 of the nut. 



The egg is pellucid white and its form may be eliptical, oval 

 or pyriform. In one example the dimensions were; length, 

 .025 inch, width, .015 inch. 



The time required for the egg to hatch was not determined 

 and the larvae was not differentiated from those of the other spe- 

 cies with which it associates. 



