MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 243 



the sides of the thoracic region. It measures 13 m.m. in length. Oncoming 



out of the pupal case the female clings firmly to the cocoon by means of its 



tiny limbs. In this posture it remains evidently awaiting the male. Whether 



impregnated by the male or not, it lays eggs in some hours. Hundreds of eggs 



are laid and these are cemented in clusters by means of a shiny fluid which 



hardens on exposure, and all these eggs become attached to the cocoon. 



When the female has unloaded itself of all the eggs it becomes very much 



reduced in size and gradually dies. 



Experiments in attracting males by taking the apterous female at dusk to 



the castor plot was tried and numbers of males were attracted. Thus the 



whole life cycle occupies from egg to imago roughly a month and a half as 



below : — 



Egg 8 days. ^ 



Caterpillar 25 „ }■ roughly 1£ months. 



Pupa 8 „ J 



The most interesting feature of this insect is the marked sexual distinc- 

 tion. As a pest, the insect is a leaf-eater and feeds gregariously like other 

 Lymantrids and during the younger stages of the larva it can be easily hand- 

 icked with the leaves and destroyed. 



T. V. RAMAKRISHNA AIYAR. 



(j ).— Breeding Notes on eumenes conica. 



A good deal has been observed and recorded of the habits of different 

 species of potter wasps by eminent observers like Home, Bingham, etc., but I 

 believe that the complete life-history of no Indian species of Eumenes has yet 

 been recorded [Home, Maindron and Cretin have all published accounts and a 

 short one occurs in Indian Insect Life, p. 211. As these notes will interest 

 readers of the Journal, they are inserted in full. H. M. L.]. I venture to 

 think, therefore, that the following rearing notes on E. conica will not be uninter- 

 esting. In the Coimbatore Agricultural College farm, E. conica appears to be 

 the commonest species that boldly enters dwellings and public buildings and 

 builds its nest in odd corners. In December last the red gram crop on the 

 farm was rather badly attacked by caterpillars — chiefly the Noctuid CMoridea 

 obsoleta—anA a number of these wasps were in evidence. Advantage was taken 

 of this and with the idea of studying the life-history of the wasp, one of these 

 was followed and the results of the observations are as below : — 



On the 13th December by about 7-25 a m. the mother wasp commenced 

 building a cell and by about 2 p.m., the cell was complete with the exception 

 of a small circular opening above. The egg was then laid ; this was concluded 

 from the fact that after finishing the cell outline, it went in and came ou 

 after some time. In about half an hour more three big caterpillars of CMoridea 

 obsoleta were brought and stored into the cell one after the other in succession. 

 These caterpillars were all full-grown and measured If inch each. The 

 fourth time the insect instead of returning with a caterpillar as I expected. 



