Mode of Egg Laying in Tingidae (Hemiptera)

Abstract

ACCORDING to Imms¹ tingid bugs insert their eggs into plant tissue. Patel and Kulkarny², who studied the bionomics of the brinjal tingid, Urentius echinus Dist., and Sharga³ and Samuel⁴, who studied the egglaying habit of Monanthia globulifera Wlk., merely state that the eggs are inserted into the leaf tissue; none of these workers describes the actual way in which the eggs are thrust into the plant tissue and what precedes the deposition of eggs. The purpose of the present communication is to describe an appar ently unknown series of actions on the part of the female tingid, culminating in the deposition of an egg, which is invariably preceded by extensive probing and actual marking by the rostrum.