1 1 4 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April , ' 07 



Benacus occurs sparingly in a pond on the campus of Lake 

 Forest College. A few specimens are taken each year in the 

 course of general collecting. During the past eight years I 

 have done more or less collecting there, from the opening until 

 the middle of June, but I have encountered living eggs but 

 once, that was on June 13, 1903. Doubtless they might have 

 been found oftener had I been specially looking for them ; for 

 twice I have found the dead, collapsed, and empty shells still 

 adhering to the typha stems in autumn. 



The egg clusters are two to three inches long, and contain 

 75 to 100 eggs of a size, that for insects, is fairly immense. 

 The eggs are attached by one end in more or less regular 

 rows, and they cover in a single layer the broader, flatter side 

 of the stem. They would be conspicuous but for their resem- 

 blance in color to the stem. 



Protective coloration is common enough among birds' eggs. 

 Here seems to be another genuine case of it among the eggs 

 of insects — not a mere general resemblance, such as the green 

 color of eggs placed upon a green leaf, but specific resem- 

 blance to the details of the background against which the eggs 

 are seen. They are longitudinally streaked with brown upon 

 a lighter ground, and the streakings are so placed and so 

 spaced that they fall into line with the flutings of the stem, 

 and greatly assist in the concealment of the cluster. I left 

 the cluster shown in Plate 2, Fig. 1, in the field for several 

 days undisturbed after its discovery, to insure the normal 

 progress of its incubation, and watched it from day to day. 

 At each return to it I had some difficulty at first locating it 

 again, although it occupied an exposed situation on the stem. 



Seen under a lens, the eggs remind one of a pile of Georgia 

 watermelons (Plate 2, Fig. 3). If the color were green in- 

 stead of brown the resemblance would be perfect. Not only 

 is the shape the same, the "blossom end" being plainly sug- 

 gested, and the exposed upper side being slightly more convex 

 than the lower, but the streakings fade out below in a very 

 similar manner. However, a closer inspection reveals a differ- 

 ent feature at each end. At the free end just below the "blos- 

 som scar" there is an obliquely-placed white crescent, whose 



