54 MISCELLANEOUS COTTON INSECTS. 
the following reply, which it will be noticed much more closely agrees 
with our observations and practically explains the seeming differences: 
Replying to your favor of August 11 (1904), making inquiry concerning my obser- 
vations upon Homalodisca coagulata (triquetra), I beg to state as follows: The observa- 
tions on the laying of the two eggs were the first in which I actually saw the deposi- 
tion made. Later on, however, I found the egg-laying in greater quantities and in a 
row, as y ou indicate you have observed. So far as I have ever observed, they always 
lay just underneath the epidermis of the leaves or stems, and I have often found them 
on the outer surface or at the base of the involucre of the squares and forms. I cer- 
tainly ought not to be quoted as observing them laying their eggs within the young 
form and squares, because it is not correct [in reply to my query concerning the 
statement in Insect Life to this effect]. The small black speck which you speak of 
on the squares is certainly not due to the egg deposition of this sharpshooter; neither 
is it due to the feeding habits of these leaf-hoppers, especially if they are more than 
half grown. The newly hatched sharpshooters feed more or lesd under shelter; that 
is, they may be more or less hidden; for this reason the very young are often found 
in the bud, so called, of the tender growing tips of the branches on cotton. It is 
here, while the leaf buds and fruit buds are bunched together and in a formative 
condition, that the most serious damage is done. The feeding punctures are often 
not serious enough to shed the squares until they grow out and attain some size. Just 
where the square has been punctured can not be readily determined when the injury 
has been done while the square was very young, as it simply yellows a little and 
sheds. However, there is no question but that much of the shedding charged to 
the sharpshooter is due to natural causes or lack of proper nutrition in the plant. 
You will not find the second brood very clearly indicated by anything you will 
find in the cotton crop or, in fact, any of the cultivated crops which it is known to 
attack. It seems to prefer the indigenous plants of various kinds, where the later 
brood and egg laying has a better chance of escaping destruction. 
Summing up all our information, we are forced to conclude that the 
possible injury to the cotton plant from this insect and those to be dis- 
cussed below which might easily be confused with it, is inconsiderable; 
and that the shedding usually attributed to injury by the vague and 
unknown ;t sharpshooter 1 ' is due to pureLy natural causes involved in 
the physiology of the plant. 
DESCRIPTION OF NYMPH, BY E. D. BALL. 
Head long, flat, shovel-like as in the adult, but not as much inclined. Vertex flat 
or slightly concave on the disc, with the margins rounding. Jugse distinct, shorter 
than in the adult; front very similar to the adult in the pupae, somewhat flatter in 
the younger stages. Clypeus rounded. Color pale olivaceous-brown; front pale; 
arcs on front, a continuation of them on vertex, and a pair of depressions at base of 
vertex, slightly fuscous. The ocelli appear as pale-reddish spots in the pupa?. 
Front with median fuscous stripe widest above and fading out on clypeus. There is 
sometimes a faint median light stripe on abdomen and usually a row of white dots 
on either side midway to the margin. Legs pale, the anterior tibiae flattened in the 
later stages; claws dark. 
ONCOMETOPIA LATERALIS Fab. 
(Fig. 31.) 
This species has been fully as common in cotton fields investigated 
by us as the last, but being smaller is not so readily seen. We have 
never observed the species in large numbers on any of its food plants. 
