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ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



in each of many punctures in corn gave an average of 4 to 5 within 

 each. The three stems referred to therefore contained in the neigh- 

 borhood of 1,188, 724, and 860 eggs, respectively. It seems not 

 unlikely that the eggs in each tassel represented the quota of a single 

 female. Four females, which were taken while ovipositing on corn, 

 were dissected and found to contain 192, 461, and 410 eggs, respec- 

 tively, all of which were of nearly full size and apparently ready for 

 immediate deposition. There was, of course, no wa}^ of determining- 

 how many eggs had been deposited 

 by each of these females before her 

 capture, nor how many more might 

 have developed in the ovaries had 

 she been left to continue depositing. 

 It does not seem likely that the aver- 

 age number of eggs deposited by 

 each female is less than 350, and if 

 all the punctures found immediately 

 adjacent to each other prove to be 

 the Avork of only one female, the 

 average number of eggs deposited 

 will be found to be in the neighbor- 

 hood of 1,000. 



Upon the cotton plants, which 

 were still small, the females were 

 very timid, taking flight whenever 

 one came near them, but in the corn- 

 fields they were much easier to ap- 

 proach. Mr. Garrett timed a num- 

 ber of females which were oviposit- 

 ing upon corn tassels and found that 

 the average time taken by the female 

 to make an egg puncture and place 

 from 3 to 6 eggs in it was from two 

 and one-half to three minutes. 



By June 23 Mr. Hardy found that 

 in the vicinity of Columbia the adults 

 were becoming less numerous, many 

 dead cicadas being found in the fields and in the axils of the corn 

 leaves. Large numbers of females, which had in some manner lost 

 their ovipositors, were found flying in the cornfields, and occasional 

 individuals, deprived of the entire abdomen, were found alive, and 

 active. 



In the selection of places for egg deposition the females are de- 

 cidedly cosmopolitan. Although the corn tassels were the preferred 



Fig. 2.— Eggs and egg punctures of Cicada 

 erratica: a, egg punctures in stem of 

 corn tassel ; b, partial cross section of 

 stem, showing eggs within cavities made 

 by female. (Drawing by Miss Charlotte 

 M. King.) 



