384 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



This was the first time the insect hart been observed in this locality, 

 being far north of any section of the State previously known to have 

 been infested. Du Quoin, in fact, was about its supposed northern 

 limit. 



On the following day, in the same field, two additional apterous fe- 

 males were found. 



These were at once taken home, and also a quantity of the growing 

 grain, which was transplanted to a flower-pot. My insects were placed 

 on the grain and covered with a large glass, through which I could ob- 

 serve all that transpired within. During the first day of their confine- 

 ment they appeared to be wholly engaged in attempting to escape, and 

 it was not until the evening of the second day, the 11th, that I noticed 

 any disposition to oviposit. 



On this evening both females had been observed for a couple of hours 

 continually running up and down the wheat-plants. Suddenly one of 

 them stopped, and, pushing herself as far away from the straw as pos- 

 sible, by throwing her legs directly beneath her and straightening them 

 out, threw the abdomen forward and beneath her body, and as it recoiled 

 toward its normal position the point of the ovipositor caught in the 

 straw and opened from the groove along the abdomen, much as the 

 blade of a pocket-knife half opens from the handle. Then, by drawing 

 the straw toward her, and bracing the ovipositor with the abdomen to 

 keep it straight, she was enabled to force its entire length into the plant, 

 her body being now flat on the surface, the legs in the same position as 

 when at rest. 



To recover the ovipositor she placed her feet against the plant, push- 

 ing it from her until the body assumed nearly the same arched position 

 as at first. When withdrawn the ovipositor at once sprung back to its 

 place in the abdominal groove. These movements occupied from one 

 and a half to two minutes, provided no difficulty was encountered in 

 withdrawing the ovipositor. 



This, however, was not always the case, as on one occasiou, which 

 came under my notice, twenty minutes were consumed in the recovery 

 alone. 



It is probable that the eggs are deposited singly, as I noticed that the 

 female at once began the task of again puncturing the straw at a little 

 distance away. On the next morning the second female was observed to 

 oviposit, and both were very busily engaged during that and the fol- 

 lowing day. But in the evening I noticed they were less active, seem- 

 ing much fatigued, and the work being accomplished with greater effort, 

 so that I was little surprised on the next unming, the 14th, to find them 

 both dead about the plants. 



The ovaries of one were examined and found to be free of eggs, show- 

 ing that she had finished her work. 



During this time the fields had been searched assiduously for others, 

 and I continued to do so without success until the 16th, when another 

 female was captured in the same field where the others had been ob- 

 tained, and, like them, wingless. 



She was placed in alcohol and soon after dissected, and the ovaries 

 found to contain a number of eggs. 



I then began, by the aid of a microscope, a thorough examination of 

 the tissue of the straw in which my confined females had oviposited, 

 and, although I spent many hours in the search, and more than once 

 felt sure I had found the eggs, was at last obliged to give up in despair, 

 not wishing to sacrifice more of my supply of now precious plants. 



