481 



loosely. Biucliiis prosopis oviposits in the pod while on the 

 tree or after it has fallen to the gronnd and the larva on 

 hatching bores its way through the woody envelope and into 

 the seed. Upon reaching full growth it has consumed the con- 

 tents of the seed and has grown so large, ordinaril3% as to make 

 the seed too small for a comfortable pupal chaml)er. It then 

 eats its way through a hole in the seedcoat, gnaws away a part 

 of the woody envelope, marks out a circle there almost cut 

 away so as to permit the emerging adult to force its way out 

 of the pod easily, and attaches the seed coat and the debris to 

 the envelop to form a pupal chamber. It is at this time that 

 the Ileterospilus oviposits in the pod and by this time in the 

 moister parts of Honolulu the p<»(l lying on the grdiuid has been 

 wet by the rain, the syru])y tluid and pithy substance have fer- 

 mented and disappeared, and the thickness intervening be- 

 tween the larva and the outer world has been reduced to no 

 more than a sixteenth of an inch, which permits oviposition. 

 Where there is less rainfall the fermentation may not take 

 place and this does not interfere in the least with the emer- 

 gence of the bruchus but I liave not as yet found the Iletero- 

 spilus l)reeding in such places. The thin membranous pods 

 and thin seed coat of DoIicJios and the seed coat of Lucaena 

 thinned for the emergence of the adult present no particular 

 mechanical ol)Stacles to oviposition. 



The position assumed by the female in oviposition is with 

 the legs widely separated and the abdomen slightly bent down. 

 The sheaths of the ovipositor are used to stiffen and guide the 

 ovipositor during the act of penetrating the pod or seed, and 

 during the act of oviposition and while removing the ovipositor 

 are moved slowly up and down. The sheath bases and oviposi- 

 tor l)ase are rather widely separated and while the ovipositor 

 is inserted the thicker terminal parts of the sheaths grasp the 

 ovipositor longitudinally and the slender basal portion of the 

 sheaths are sharply bent to form a sort of support for it. I 

 have been unable to distinguish the actual passage of the egg 

 along the ovipositor or to observe an actual stinging of the 



