FEOCETDINGS OF TKE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



421 



7 A.M. and by 8-45 a.m. in the same day she had laid 27 eggs when she 

 flew away and was seen no more. The least number in a cluster may 

 be as low as 3 or as high as 51. It is difficult to find the exact number 

 of eggs laid by a female in the fields as she never lays them at one sitting. 

 In captivity the number of eggs laid by individual females varied from 

 27 to 47 and I think it would not be wide of the mark if the average 

 number of eggs laid by a female be taken as 40. Subsequent to the 

 observation noted above a female was observed to have laid on the 

 18th September 1909, 27 eggs in one place, 11 a little to the south of the 

 former cluster and 10 a little to the side of the first cluster. In all she 

 laid 48 eggs on the same leaf, though in three separate masses. On 

 the 8th November- 1911, a count was made of the number of eggs in 

 diiierent clusters and the result was as follows ;— 



Cluster — Number of eggs 



1st 17 



19 



zna . 

 3rd , 

 4ih . 

 5th . 

 ()th . 

 7th . 

 Sth . 

 9th . 

 10th 

 11th 

 1 2th 

 1 Sth 



14th 

 15th 



14 

 51 



4G . 



38 Of these 14 were laid at a 

 "distance of not more 

 than 2 mm. from tlie 

 main chister and so were 

 taken to form one clus- 

 ter. 



21 



19 



In some years these eggs were laid close to the eggs of N eomasheJlia 

 bergii, Sign, on the lower surface of the same leaf, but could be dis- 

 tinguished readily from the latter as they are laid in straight lines though 

 broken. The females of Neomaskellia bergii, Sign., lay eggs either in a 

 circle or in two crescents very nearly touching each other to form a circle. 



The eggs when laid freshly are dull pale brown. They change colour 

 48 hours after they are laid. They are broad at the base, pointed at 

 the other end. It is pedunculated* at the broad end with a short, 

 thick smoky-brown peduncle with which it is attached to the leaf. Each 



* A number of females were treated with cool K H 10 per cent, from 24 to 48 hours 

 and the chitin had become so transparent that Ihe eggs within could be seen distinctly 

 under the microscope. They were then seen with peduncles attached to their broad 

 •ends. 



