The Beemoth or Waxwokm 



35 



the ovipositor. If a female is being killed or injured, she will attempt 

 to oviposit even after she is unable to walk. 



The cage records on the period of oviposition are shown in table 33. 



Table 22. — Period of oviposition. 



EFFECT OP AGE OP SEX 



The age of the sex apparently does not have any constant effect on 

 the fertility of the eggs. Females of excessive age were mated with 

 freshly emerged males. Eggs were deposited which hatched. Females 

 that had just emerged were mated with males of excessive age and the 

 eggs that were deposited hatched. In one cage a female was mated with 

 a male that had mated in another cage the previous night. Mating 

 took place and all eggs deposited hatched. 



The females will deposit their eggs even when they have not had the 

 opportunity to mate. In all cases when the sexes were not properly 

 paired the females would finally oviposit, -the period of oviposition being, 

 however, much shorter than the natural one. Although many females 

 which did not mate were confined in cages, and although they deposited 

 eggs, none of these unfertilized eggs ever hatched. It seems a fairly 

 safe conclusion that parthenogensis does not occur with this species. 



BATE OP OVIPOSITION 



In many instances females have been observed depositing their eggs ■ 

 at the rate of one every minute for a period of thirty minutes, and 

 then after a short rest have continued again- at the same rate. 



EFFECT OF HUMIDITY ON DEVELOPMENT 



Experiments were planned to determine the effect of a low huniidity 

 on the hatching of the eggs and development of the larvae and pupae. 

 For this purpose a large egg incubator of the hot water type was 

 secured. The temperature of ninety degrees F. was decided upon and 

 a humidity of approximately thirty-five per cent. A recording hygro- 



