OVIPOSITION. 



363 



for <* bait," fertilized moths, dead moths or female pupae 

 were used. The fertilized females attracted the males in 

 about half the cases where they were used. Of eight traps 

 *' baited " with fertilized females, three caught nothing, two 

 caught one each, two caught two each and one caught four- 

 teen, being an average of two and one-half each. The aver- 

 age catch of the same traps, baited" with unfertilized 

 females, was twenty and eight-tenths each. In nineteen of 

 the traps dead females were used at times, but they proved to 

 be of little value, for only five out of the nineteen attracted 

 any males. The total number of females used was twenty- 

 three, and only twenty-four males were captured by such 

 " bait." In some cases, female pupae were used in the traps, 

 and gave rather surprising results, which seem to indicate 

 that the pupae possess in some degree the power to assemble 

 male moths, as twenty-one female pupse attracted seventy- 

 two males. 



The following is a summary of the results obtained : 

 191 traps; total catch, 9,767 males; average, 51.2 each; 

 maximum catch, 431 males ; minimum catch, 0 ; maximum 

 catch by a single female, 420 ; minimum catch by a single 

 female, 0. 



After the trapping season was over, the localities in Med- 

 ford, where the greatest number of males was captured, 

 were carefully explored and the egg-clusters collected. In 

 the latter part of December these eggs were carefully ex- 

 amined and their fertility determined, with the following 

 results : of 659 egg-clusters examined, 16, or 2.4 per cent., 

 proved to be infertile. As a check on the work, an equal 

 number of egg-clusters taken from places not trapped for 

 males were collected and examined, and all proved fertile. 



OVIPOSITION. 



The abdomen of the female is so heavy before depositing 

 her eggs that she simply clings head upward to the trunk 

 of a tree or other object on which she happens to be rest- 

 ing (Plate 55) ; and when preparing to lay, and even during 

 the process of depositing the egg-cluster, she drops or scat- 

 ters more or less eggs accidentally. A small hairy area is 

 first formed by rubbing the abdomen over the surface, thus 



