The Bulletin 
101 
females commence laying from two to three weeks after they have trans¬ 
formed. This would mean, then, that the first adults that emerge in the 
early summer would commence to lay eggs that season and continue right 
through with their parents; whereas the beetles emerging late in the 
season would not find suitable corn in which to oviposit and would 
seek hibernating quarters and not commence egg laying until the fol¬ 
lowing season. This, perhaps, accounts for the great variation in the 
numbers of eggs laid by individual females. (See egg-laying records 
above.) 
EXAMINATION OF PLANT BEFORE BEGINNING OVIPOSITION 
So far as our observations go, the adult female makes no preliminary 
examination of the plant in which she is going to oviposit. Instead, 
as discussed above under “Habits of the Adults,” she simply seems to 
take any plant that offers. Neither is there any attempt to avoid plants 
already containing eggs. In one case, early in the season, a small 
plant was examined which contained five eggs, yet there were within 
a radius of six inches not less than four other plants that contained no 
eggs and many others in the same field near by which contained no 
eggs or only very few eggs. 
The females which are making egg punctures may be readily dis¬ 
tinguished in our experience from females that are simply feeding by 
the following characteristic actions. Feeding adult bill bugs either 
male or female take their position head downward on the stalk at or 
below the level of the ground, usually higher on the plant than egg- 
laying beetles. The body of the feeding beetles, so far as we have ob¬ 
served, remains motionless, the tarsi only being moved and the beak 
seeming to sink without effort into the stalk. On the other hand, adults 
preparing egg cavities seem to take a position lower on the stalk than 
feeding beetles, and, in addition, their bodies are pulled back and 
pushed forward as the beak is inserted; thus instead of a small round 
puncture a long oval puncture results, the beak acting somewhat as 
a wedge to separate the stalk as it is inserted deeper and deeper, 
^yhile making the egg puncture the adults have their bodies parallel 
with the long axis of the stems of the plant, with head downward (Fig. 
5), but when the egg cavity is finished they turn slowly about with 
the center of the body as a pivot and locate the egg cavity with the tip 
of the abdomen (Fig. 6). The tip of the abdomen is then slowly in¬ 
serted into the cavity, the beetle retaining its hold upon the plant 
largely by means of the metathoracic and mesothoracic legs. Not in¬ 
frequently the prothoracic legs are entirely withdrawn from the stalk. 
Oviposition completed, the beetles simply crawl away, sometimes going 
to shelters under clods or elsewhere, sometimes wandering about until 
they locate another stalk upon which they may feed or oviposit. 
