Eggs of Stictophaula armata lngrisch 1994 from Chiang Mai, Thailand ( 18°4 7'N, 98°55'E), were incubated at 25 °C in the laboratory. Under constantly humid conditions, favourable for development, about half of the eggs hatched within 60 days after oviposition (peak 20-36 days), the other half hatched between 120 and 350 days after oviposition, most!) between 180-260 days. In the late hatching eggs, embryonic development ceased temporarily at mesentrepses. Eggs laid by females that themselves had hatched from early or from late hatching eggs gave similar results. When newly laid eggs were incuhated at 60% RH, no hatching occurred, but if the eggs were first incubated for a period varying between 2 and 12 months at 60% RH and then allowed to absorb water, hatching occurred with a unimodal distribution between 23 and 72 days after moistening of the eggs (peak 24-40 days). Hatching success was not reduced by a desiccation period of up to 6 months. The results are interpreted as the occurrence of an egg diapause that is eliminated by the incidence of drought.