192 

 GENERAL NOTES. 



OVIPOSITION OF TRAGIDION FULVTPENNE. 



A desirable addition to our knowledge of the life-history of Tragidion 

 fulvipenne is made by Prof. E. A. Popenoe, in a paper entitled "Xote 

 on the oviposition of a Wooclborer," read at the Wichita meeting of the 

 Kansas Academy of Science, and published in the Manhattan Industri- 

 alist for November 2, 1889. The Cerambycidce, as Professor Popenoe 

 points out, ordinarily oviposit in cracks of bark or in fissures made by 

 the parent insect, and hence the striking variation in this habit in the 

 case of the above-named beetle is the more interesting. 



Female beetles only were observed about a wood-pile on warm days 

 about the end of September, and after considerable search they were 

 seen ovipositing on sticks, probably on the chestnut oak. The habit of 

 the insect in this particular is described as follows : 



When detected in oviposition, the females were standing on the smooth bark, trans- 

 versely to the stick, their bodies close to the surface, their antennae bent under at 

 the tips, which were touching the bark, and the broad tip of the abdomen closely 

 appressed to the surface over which the insect stood. The close contact of the mo- 

 tionless tip of the abdomen to the bark prevented my noting the exact mode of placing 

 the egg, and presently, becoming somewhat impatient, I lifted a beetle from position, 

 and, to my surprise, instead of an opening in the bark as I had anticipated, I saw a 

 tuhercle simulating so closely in appearance and color the corky outgrowths common 

 on the bark of the chestnut oak that I was at first inclined to believe it one of these, 

 and to question the purpose of the female in maintaining so long the position de- 

 scribed. On an examination of this tubercle, however, I found it to be hollow, and 

 within it, lying on the bark, with no puncture or abrasion in the latter to be seen, 

 was an oblong egg of a translucent, dull white surface, smooth and without mark- 

 ings, so far as I could see with a pocket triplet of good definition. This egg was suf- 

 ficient in size nearly to fill the hollow tubercle, or egg-case, as I may now call it. 

 The egg-case is rather regular, ellipticle, strongly convex, measuring about one-six- 

 teenth of an inch in length. Under the microscope, the case appears on the surface 

 to be made up of scales of the thin external layer of the oak bark, intermingled with 

 glistening particles, as of dried mucus. 



INSECTS INJURING THE TEA-PLANT IN CEYLON. 



We have recently received from Mr. E. Ernest Green of Eton, Pun- 

 duloya, Ceylon, a series of nine short articles on the "Insect Pests of 

 the Tea-plant " published in the Ceylon Independent, July 3 to October 

 3. The papers are illustrated by engravings made by a native from 

 drawings by Mr. Green and, while naturally not of a high state of art, 

 are plain aDd characteristic. The pests treated are as follows : 



The Faggot Worm (Eumeta carmerii). — This insect is one of the Bag- 

 worms, and its popular name is derived from the fact that its case re- 

 sembles a bundle of minute faggots. The life history is very similar to 

 that of our common Bag- worm {Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis). Mr. 



