THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF THE FEMALE MAIA 
MOTH, Hemikuca Maia (Drury). 
BY” WM. S. MARSHALL. 
Hemileuca maia is found late in the summer near Madison 
occurring very abundantly in the marsh land at the margin of 
one of the lakes adjacent to the city. Here for a few days both 
the males and females fly low over the marsh or settle on the 
grass and small twigs, the latter to lay their eggs. One year a 
number of the moths were collected and saved for study; some 
were prepared by having the body cut open before throwing them 
into alcohol, while from others the reproductive organs were re¬ 
moved and hardened in corrosive sublimate or Flemming's 
solution. 
The reproducitve organs of the female moth are, in general, 
similar to those which have been described for other Lepidoptera. 
Each ovary consists of four long ovarian tubules all of which 
are bent and coiled forming a large irregular mass within the 
abdomen. When the tubules are separated from each other 
each one is seen to be a long tube having the same diameter 
throughout, except for a short distance, at the distal end, where 
it is narrower (Fig. 4.) Those moths from which the eggs have 
been expelled show the ovarian tubules shorter and much nar¬ 
rower. The eggs within the tubules, which, before egg-laying 
generally exceed forty in number, give to each tubule the appear¬ 
ance of a string of beads. After the expulsion of part of the 
eggs there are here and there in the tubule considerable distances 
between neighboring eggs, no regularity, however, being apparent 
