1972] 
Henry — Ululodes and Ascaloptynx 
5 
were placed twigs and all in 2.5 cm X 9.0 cm glass screw-top vials 
and transported carefully to the research station laboratory. There, 
the egg-bearing twigs were taped in their “natural” positions, covered 
with large glass jars for observation and situated in a southwest 
window shielded by heavy curtains form the vicissitudes of indoor 
artificial light. Complete records from oviposition through hatching 
to descent of larvae were obtained for seven egg-masses of Ululodes 
and eight of Ascaloptynx . Additional egg-clumps of both species of 
Ascalaphidae were exposed to several natural and exotic insect preda- 
tors (mostly ants) under various experimental conditions, to ascertain 
the effectiveness of the repagula. In each experiment, for each 
ascalaphid species, two normal egg-masses and one egg-mass stripped 
of its repagula were mounted (on their respective twigs) in the 
vicinity of foraging ants, in such a manner that the bottom-most 
egg of each clump was positioned 16 cm above the ground. The 
behavioral details and success of each foray of an ant (or other 
insect) up an egg-bearing twig were carefully noted. Similar 
experiments were carried out using hatched egg-masses, prior to 
descent of the larvae from their twigs. 
Closer observation and dissection of eggs, repagula, and gravid 
female ascalaphids were undertaken beneath a Wild M5 stereoscopic 
dissecting ’scope outfitted with an integral camera lucida attachment; 
most of the illustrations included with this paper were rendered 
with the aid of this precision imaging device. Extremely small 
specimens and structures were treated with xylene and mounted in 
Damar on depression-slides and observed at higher magnification 
using a Bausch and Lomb stereoscopic compound microscope with 
one ocular fitted with a 10 X 10 micrometer grid to insure accurate 
drawings. 
IV. Descriptions of Eggs and Repagula 
A. Ululodes mexicana (McLachlan) 
Adults of U. mexicana appear in large numbers in southeastern 
Arizona at the beginning of August, and remain abundant until the 
time of first frost — - mid or late October. Males apparently die off 
by early September, while females, which individually may live three 
months or more under laboratory conditions, begin laying eggs at 
the start of the dry season in September and continue ovipositing far 
into October. Females display great selectivity in their choice of 
sites for oviposition, but are quite unselective of the particular 
species of plant: eggs are laid probably at dawn on the thin periph- 
eral dead twigs of any two or four foot deciduous shrub growing 
