126 PAPEES ON CEEEAL AND FOEAGE INSECTS. 



hairy. Tergimi of anal segment bearing 3 pairs of transversely placed, acutely 

 conoidal tubercles ; one pair, the tubercles of wbich are placed near together, 

 situated near middle : a second pair, widely separated and posterior to the first, 

 and a third pair directed caudad, not so widely separated as the second, located 

 at posterior marginal angles. Directly ventrad to the third pair of tergal 

 tubercles is a subquadrate lobe bearing at its outer angles a pair of stout 

 tubercles. A median emargination on the posterior border is continuous with 

 a median groove to the tergum. On each side of this median groove and 

 directly below the terminal pair of tergal tubercles are 2 conchate cavities, 

 probably stigmal in function. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



On March 20, 1908, a number of tipulid larvae {Tipula infuscata) 

 were sent to this office by Mr. E. W. Lawrence, of Jackson, Tenn., 

 with the statement that they were completely destroying Japan clover 

 (Lespedeza striata) in the tenth district of Madison County, and 

 this paper deals exclusively with our subsequent investigations of this 

 particular species. 



Early in October the adults (figs. GO, 61) of this species are abroad 

 in great numbers among tall, rank grass, clover, and weeds, from 

 which they rise awkwardly, as one approaches, flying but a few yards 

 before alighting. They continue abundant in the field during the 

 greater part of October, belated individuals being found about Wash- 

 ington, D. C., as late as October 30. 



From material received from Jackson, Tenn., the first adults ap- 

 peared on October 5, 1 male and 3 females emerging. These females 

 mated almost immediately after emerging, but died without oviposit- 

 ing. On October 20 a female that emerged on October 13, and that 

 had remained mated for over sixteen hours, began ovipositing on the 

 slate bottom of the rearing cage. She would deposit three or four eggs 

 in a given place and then move on excitedly an inch or more and 

 repeat the process. On being placed in a pot of earth she seemed 

 more at home, elevating her body on the long legs, holding the 

 abdomen perpendicular to the surface of the ground, then slowly 

 moving forward, bobbing up and down, and apparently feeling the 

 ground with the tip of her ovipositor until she found a crevice or 

 hole, when she would let her abdomen into the cavity, deposit a few 

 eggs, and move on to repeat the process at the next crevice encoun- 

 tered. That the Tipulida? normally flip the eggs about while flying 

 seems very doubtful, but under adverse circumstances, such as being 

 caught in spiders' webs, as one often sees them, they undoubtedly use 

 this means, though probably not intentionally, of dispersing their 

 eggs. A specimen of this species etherized for examination threw 

 out 176 eggs by sudden sidewise movements of the upper and lower 

 genital plates, much as one would snap the fingers. One egg was 

 thrown to a distance of 10 inches. 



The average number of eggs laid by one female of this species, as 

 determined by confining recently fertilized females in separate rear- 



