80 
Psyche 
[June 
oviposition has commenced but the necessity for repeated 
impregnation has not been determined. Within one day 
after mating the female begins depositing eggs. As many 
as 20 eggs have been obtained from a single female within 
a twenty-four hour period, but this is an extreme; the 
average number of eggs laid during this period has been 
approximately ten. 
The females prefer a rough surface, with many de- 
pressions or crevices, for oviposition. In many cases the 
females will not oviposit if they are not provided with a 
suitable ovipositional substrate. The eggs are laid singly, 
but quite often large numbers will be found in a favorable 
location. Most of the oviposition takes place at night, 
there being little or no activity during the day. 
The length of life of the adults provided with an ade- 
quate diet varied from 49 to 63 days. The length of life 
from the time of egg deposition until death of the adult 
varied from 92 to 131 days; the average being approxi- 
mately 110 days under insectary conditions. 
Hosts. — While the results obtained and the list of species 
tested as hosts are not complete, they do indicate the type 
of food required for development and egg production. As 
mentioned above the larvae were observed to feed only 
upon the young scale of the diaspine and lecanine groups. 
The adults have been observed to feed upon the citrus red 
mite, Metatetranychus citri (McG.) and the citrus rust 
mite, Phyllocoptruta oleivora (Ashm.) in addition to the 
scale insects. In order to promote egg production and also 
lengthen the life of the adults, honey and water are neces- 
sary. As shown in table 1 the diet which proved to be 
the most sufficient as to length of life consisted of water, 
honey and scale crawlers. The length of life of dusty- 
wing adults which fed on citrus red mites or citrus rust 
mites, with honey and water added in each case, was sim- 
ilar to that obtained with a diet of scale crawlers, honey 
and water. 
Table 1 shows that when adults of Spiloconis picticornis 
were fed only citrus red mites or scale crawlers the maxi- 
mum length of life was four days. When fed only honey, 
water, or citrus rust mites the maximum length of life 
