208 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



parts of the chains, which would increase the number of eggs to 

 528. Nor are we prepared to say but what the pear-shaped unseg- 

 •mented body at the other end of the chain might develop still others. 

 See PI. II, Figs. 4-10. We actually counted forty-eight chains in 

 several insects and each chain had at least seven eggs, which would 

 make 336 eggs as the minimum number. The chains of eggs were 

 mounted and drawn to scale and are shown (Platell, Figures4-10.) 

 The developmental stages of the eggs show conclusively that 

 oviposition is necessarily extended over considerable time. 



Discovery of the Ovipositor as a sharp instrument, fully capable 

 of making a puncture through the skin of an apple, is a very im- 

 portant observation. The ovipositor has been described as truncate 

 and blunt by Loew, Lintner and Perkins and incapable of making 

 a puncture. All references to the ovipositor we have seen undoubt- 

 edly refer to the last abdominal segment, the ovipositor and sheath 

 retracted within it apparently never having been seen. The ovi- 

 positor is shown (Plate II, Figures 1 and 3) to be a sharp instru- 

 ment fully capable of making an incision. Out of over fifty flies 

 only a few died with the ovipositor extended, and in cabinet speci- 

 mens it is usually retracted within the sheath. We have several 

 slides showing the ovipositor extended, also cabinet specimens 

 showing it finely. Some may claim this discovery for Walsh, as 

 he says the insect oviposits through the skin of the apple, but he 

 examined apparently only one female, and we doubt his having seen 

 the ovipositor. Most eminent Entomologists since Walsh have 

 doubted the insertion of the egg, never having described or figured 

 the ovipositor, therefore, credit should be given to the one who first 

 describes and figures the instrument and observes it do its work. 



Confirmation of Walsh's statement, tliat the Jemale punctures the 

 apple to lay her eggs is exceedingly interesting, for as Prof. Riley 

 writes us, "It is opposed to everything which we know regarding the 

 egg laying habits of Diptera." This has been denied by all promi- 

 nent Entomologists since Walsh's time. By witnessing the oviposi- 

 tion ; finding the eggs in the characteristic punctures ; observing one 

 hatch and proving it to be Trypeta, and by finding the same eggs in 

 the ovary of the female that we found inserted beneath the skin 

 of apples, the position of Walsh is sustained. By means of a 

 jeweler's glass on the eye we witnessed the process of oviposition 

 several times. The fly would run about over the apple ner- 

 vously for a short time as though selecting a suitable place, then 

 coming to rest, elevQ.ted the thorax behind m^ ttirped the abdonaen 



