NOTE ON DICERCA DIVARICATA, Say

Extract

On the 12th of last June I observed a female of this species on a dead Maple. She was creeping down the tree, feeling the interstices of the bark with her ovipositor, but apparently without finding a suitable place, as no eggs were deposited so far as I could perceive. On the 19th, I observed another female, also on Maple. She was resting head downwards with the terminal segments of the abdomen slightly inclined, the ovipositor extended at a right angle with the body and placed in an old hole of some borer. She remained in this position for several minutes, the ovipositor being alternately dilated and contracted as if eggs were passing through. After she had gone away, I examined the place and found that, at a little distance from the surface, the hole was stopped with a smooth grayish substance. Not having a knife about me, I tried to remove it with a stalk of grass, but only succeeded in breaking it up into a yellowish fluid. I have no doubt that the creature deposited an egg, or eggs, and covered them with a kind of cement. Whether this is the usual manner in which the species oviposits I cannot say.