EGGS or INSECTS. Eggs and their deposition among the insects present a great variety of in teresting phenomena. of which only a sketch may be given here. In many cases in this class the eggs arc so carefully placed as to insure the survival of almost every one, and in proportion as the preeautions are complete the number pe riodically laid is diminished; in fact, in nearly all eases, except in the Hymenoptera, each egg, or else a group of eggs, is within a strong shell or capsule.
Bees. wasps. and ants lay relatively large, glob ular, shell-less eggs, usually each by itself. in the cells of their combs or burrows, placing with them food for the expected larvx (honey, bee bread, palsied spiders, etc.). other insects place them within or upon the bodies of other insects. as is the habit of the parasitic ichneumons and ehaleids; else insert them into plant-tissues and wood. as do the gall-flies. sawtlies, etc. flies produce living lame, and others retain their eggs until nearly mature. The bottle-shaped eggs of mosquitoes stick together in a sort of cake or raft that floats on the surface of water; those of the midges are imbedded in jell•., whieh swells in the water and sticks to a support ; the buffalo gnats glue theirs in large patches to submerged reeks. The snipe-flies. gadflies, and some others put their eggs on dried branches overhanging the water, in large pear-shaped masses to which several females contribute, and many others force theirs into the ground or into de caying, wood or dung, carrion meat, or wounds. as is the ease wit). tlesh-flies, syrplms flies, etc.; while the lads attach theirs to animal Fairs. where they may be licked of and develop in the stomach of their host. It is dearly im possible to carry this particular deseription through the list. One of the longest as well as 'mist entertaining chapters in the admirable rod net ion I o 1:n1°01.'109y, by Kirby and
Spence. is filled with such details. An excellent summary has been by Carpenter as follows; "The outer form of insects' eggs is exceedingly variable. Very many—as those of beetles, grass hoppers, and flies—are elongate, like the cock roach's. The eggs of some moths are globular, while those of butterflies, and especially those of bugs, assume graceful, flask-like shapes and ele gantly sculptured surfaces. other insects—the golden-eye flies, for examplc—produce stalked eggs. which are raised well above the plant-stem on which they are laid, and so protected from mites and other enemies. Insect-eggs contain a quantity of food-yolk, and are therefore of com paratively large size. The globular egg of the hawkinoth, for instance. measures inch in diameter, while the similarly shaped egg of a cat measures only inch. The coekroa•h's eggs are protected by a purse-shaped capsule. Sixteen eggs are contained in this case, eight on a side.
\billy insects protect their eggs by a gummy secretion: sonic female moths shed hairs from their bodies to afford the eggs a covering. Those of the Nvater-insects are often contained in a long gelatinous tube, and some xvate,r-beetles con strict around their eggs a silken cocoon. Lo custs. grasshoppers, and many other insects bury their eggs in the ground for safety: other insects —chafers and crane-flies, for example—lay their eggs in the ground that the young may be near the roots of plants on which they will feed. Almost universally the food of the young determines the place of egg-laying." The eggs of a certain small aquatic fly, breed ing in Western saline lakes, drift on shore in vast quantities, and are baked into edible cakes by the local Indians.