April, ’18] 
McCOLLOCH: FALSE WIREWORMS, ELEODES 
215 
until early in March when it was about 40° F., after which time it began 
to rise slowly. The results obtained in the life-history work in the 
cave coincided closely with the field observations made throughout 
the year. 
Description and Life Economy 
The Egg. —The eggs (PI. 5, A) of E. tricostata are bluntly oval longi¬ 
tudinally, and circular in diameter. They vary in length from 2.2 
mm. to 2.5 mm. and are about 1.2 mm. in diameter. The eggs of this 
species are much larger than any so far described for the genus. Blais- 
dell (1909, p. 496) states that the eggs of all species of Eleodes which 
he has examined are about 1 mm. in length. The freshly laid eggs 
are white in color with no surface markings. As development takes 
place the color changes to a light creamy yellow. 
When deposited, the eggs are coated with a sticky solution which 
causes a thin layer of dirt to adhere to them, making them hard to find 
in the field. They are laid singly, although several may be placed 
in the same cavity. In the rearing cages, the females seemed to pre¬ 
fer dry dirt for oviposition as practically all of the eggs were found in 
the driest dirt. In oviposition, the female excavates a cavity one- 
fourth inch to three inches in depth and deposits from one to four 
eggs, after which she fills the hole with dirt. 
In hatching, the young larva splits the egg shell at the end and down 
the side about one-third the way. The larva usually emerges head 
first but it is not unusual for the reverse to occur. The egg shell ap¬ 
pears to be broken by the larva arching the body and this may cause 
the shell to break at either the anterior or posterior end. When the 
larva emerges head first, the process requires a very short time, but 
when it emerges with the posterior end first, several hours may be 
consumed in emerging, and, in some cases, the larva may be unable to 
free the head from the shell. 
The length of egg stage was determined for 300 eggs in 1915 and 4,800 
eggs in 1916. The following table gives the essential data: 
Incubation Period 
Date 
No. Eggs 
Hatching 
Min. Days 
Max. Days 
Average Days 
1915 
300 
10 
30 
14.5 
1916 
4800 
6 
46 
14.0 
The length of the egg stage varies with the season of the year. Eggs 
laid during July and the first half of August hatched in from 6 to 11 
days. After the middle of August the length of the egg stage increased 
