April, '07] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 115 



arms extend down upon the sides and mark out the cap that 

 the young- Bcnacus will later push off at hatching. The brown 

 lines of the under surface stop short at the edge of this cres- 

 cent; they are still more abbreviated at the opposite end of 

 the egg. At the basal end the egg is broadly capped with uni- 

 form dark brown (Plate 2, Fig. 2). In Figure 1 of the plate, 

 a few eggs have been removed from the right side, and two 

 are laid down in an inverted position to show the paler lower 

 side and the brown basal end. 



The individual egg is 5 mm. long and 2 mm. in greatest 

 diameter. It is oblong-oval in form, with very obtuse ends 

 as shown in the figures, and it is marked longitudinally with 

 twenty or more irregular stripes (often interrupted, cleft 

 fenestrate, or anastomosing, and always with uneven margins), 

 convergent toward the center of the free end upon the upper 

 side. 



Their incubation period was not determined. The single 

 cluster of unknown age found upon the 13th of June, began 

 hatching on the 23d and finished on the 24th of the same month. 

 Their hatching was a curious sight. The photograph shown 

 in Fig. 3 of the plate, was taken in the midst of the process 

 and shows two empty eggshells, several eggs in the process 

 of "chipping," and four buglings emerging, the uppermost one 

 nearly out and the lowermost, just lifting the detachable cap 

 of the shell. The embryo lies once folded within the shell, 

 its head flexed upon its breast, and its beak and legs extended 

 flat against the venter of the abdomen. Thus the dorsum of 

 the prothorax abuts against the detachable crescentic groove. 

 The eyes appear before hatching as back spots upon the arms 

 of this crescent. The back is almost invariably downward, as 

 seen in the figure, though sometimes turned a little to one side. 

 On account of the obliquity of the pale crescent, and the con- 

 stant position of the embryo in relation to it, these eggs might 

 readily be oriented for section-cutting in embryology. 



The thin lateral margins of the abdomen unrolling at hatch- 

 ing, and the legs becoming extended, the fledgling at once as- 

 sumes proportions seemingly wholly incompatible with the size 

 of the egg from which it came. Figure 2 of the plate shows 



