50 
[August, 
which are also furnished with whitish ciline at the broadened extremity, 
running backwards and inwards, but not meeting in an angle. This is 
the condition of things during the interval between the laying of two 
eggs. When an egg is being laid, or rather, during the latter half of 
the process, an inner transparent tube prolapses, bringing with it 
(attached to its upper lateral margins) the two black appendages just 
mentioned. The egg comes forward by jerks, and, after it touches 
the glass (I am describing the process here as watched through the glass 
cover of the pot on which the beetle was laying her eggs), there is a 
pause of some seconds before the complete extrusion of the egg. 
During this pause about half the egg is seen, and the ovipositor, viewed 
from the dorsal side, is hidden by the upper valve of the pygidium. 
Only at the final complete expulsion of the egg does the inner tube, 
■with its appendages, come down. These appendages have motions of 
apposition with one another, and with the two chitinous portions of 
the lower lip of the outer tube, by which the end of the egg can be 
grasped as it were between four fingers ; and it is so grasped and 
settled in its place, upon its side, in row with the other eggs, before 
anything more is done. The beetle then shifts its position a little ; 
the ovipositor (the inner tube and its appendages having been re- 
tracted) is moved uneasily from side to side ; and, after an interval of 
variable duration, another egg is seen coming forward by jerks to the 
glass (or other surface on which the eggs are being deposited). The 
whole process usually occupies something less than a minute. I reckon 
normally seven eggs in five minutes, but the rate varies much in dif- 
ferent individuals, and is much slower towards the end of the batch. 
At this rate an average batch of eggs would be deposited in something 
over half an hour. As I have said, the eggs are laid almost uni- 
versallv on that surface of the leaf which is undermost at the time ; 
and if, in confinement, a leaf be turned over while the beetle is engaged 
in oviposition, she will most likely walk away, and subsequently com- 
plete the operation on the other side of the leaf, it may be shortly, or 
it may be after an interval of several hours. One knows that it is 
the completion of the same batch by the sum of the two parcels 
agreeing with what was to be expected. The average number of eggs 
in a batch I found to be about 45, but the actual number varies in 
different females, though it is pretty constantly the same for the same 
individual ; or rather, the alternate batches agree in number, a cir- 
cumstance which seems to be accounted for by the alternate unbur- 
thening of themselves by two independent ovaries. Sometimes, 
however, both act together or in immediate succession, and a double 
