* 
64 General Notes. [ January, 
The next year, however, I was able to get them sent to me in 
the larva and pupa states and had them emerge in confinement. 
Many, however, proved to be parasited and a large number of 
specimens of Pimpla conquisitor Say, together with several dipter- 
ous parasites and a hair-snake emerged from them. I could not 
convince myself that there was any difference in the activity of 
the larvez, although nearly half of them finally proved to have — 
contained parasites of large size. 
The pupe were kept in a glass observing cage, and soon after 
their emergence the sexes began to pair, quite irrespective of the 
time of day, some early in the morning, others in the middle of 
the day, and still others in the evening. It must be remembered 
that all my observations were made upon them in confinement, 
and that in nature, undér different conditions, the ways of these 
insects may be somewhat different. 
Having now a considerable number of impregnated females, 
they were disposed of so as to oviposit under different conditions. 
For one, a branch of fir (Ades balsamea) was supplied, this being 
their favorite food plant; others were put in dark boxes, while 
others were kept under glass beakers with no food plant. 
The one provided with the branch of fir laid her eggs July 
5th, about the middle of the forenoon. The manner of oviposit- 
ing was as follows: crawling upon the upper side of a leaf with 
her head towards the stem, she bent her abdomen down, deposit- 
ing an eg¢ a little to one side near the tip, then bending the ab- 
domen a little to the other side she deposited another slightly 
overlapping the one already laid, then moving forward a bit and 
turning the abdomen to the other side another was laid, and so 
on till two continuous rows were laid upon the upper side, con- 
tinuing to the base of the leaf, the eggs of the same row over- 
lapping each other so much that not more than one-third of the 
upper side was free, while those of one row overlapped those of 
the other row by about a fourth of their width. After having _ 
finished the rows on one leaf, she went to another and continued 
as before, till one hundred and twenty-five were deposited. 
The time required for the deposition of an egg was not far 
from five seconds, and the female continued her work almost with- 
out interruption till all those on one leaf were deposited; then an 
interval of a few minutes elapsed before she began on another. 
The eggs are flattened, slightly elliptical, 12 mm. long and 
I mm. wide, of a bright green color, surface smooth under an or-_ 
dinary lens. 
I carefully watched another female with a lens, while oviposit- 
ing on the inside of a thin glass beaker. The abdomen was rais- 
ed after the deposit of the egg and bent a little to one side, as 
described above, for the purpose of depositing a second egg; only 
in this case the eggs were not confined to two rows, but varied in ~ 
number till as many as six or more rows were laid, forming an 
es te ae 
