174 THE COCKROACH: 



They are slender, irregularly bent, and curved inwards at the 

 tips. A small, forked, chitinous slip connects them with both 

 the 8th and 9th terga, but their principal attachment is to the 

 upper (properly, posterior) edge of the 8th sternum. The 

 anterior gonapophyses expand at their bases into broad hori- 

 zontal plates, which form part of the roof of the genital pouch. 



Two pairs of appendages, belonging to the 9th somite, form 

 the posterior gonapophyses. The outer pair are relatively 

 large, soft, and curved : the inner narrow, hard, and straight.* 



The anterior gonapophyses form the lower, and the posterior 

 the upper jaw of a forceps, which in many Insects can be 

 protruded beyond the body. Some of the parts are often armed 

 with teeth, and the primary use of the apparatus is to bore 

 holes in earth or wood for the reception of the eggs. Hence 

 the apparatus is often called the ovipositor. It forms a promi- 

 nent appendage of the abdomen in such Insects as Crickets, 

 Saw-flies, Sirex, and Ichneumons. The sting of the Bee is a 

 peculiar adaptation of the same organ to a very different 

 purpose. In the Cockroach the ovipositor is used to grasp the 

 egg-capsule, while it is being formed, filled with eggs, and 

 hardened ; and the notched edge (fig. 5, p. 23) is the imprint 

 of the inner posterior gonapophyses, made while the capsule is 

 still soft. The shape of the parts in the male and female 

 indicates that the ovipositor is passive in copulation, and is 

 then raised to allow access to the spermatheca. 



Male Reproductive Organs. 



The male reproductive organs of Insects, in spite of very 

 great superficial diversity, are reducible to a common type, 

 which is exemplified by certain Coleoptera. The essential parts 

 are (1) the festes, which in their simplest form are paired, 

 convoluted tubes ; more commonly they branch into many 

 tubules or vesiculce, while thev may become consolidated into a 



V > 



* The descriptions and figures of the reproductive appendages of female Orthop- 

 tera by Lacaze-Duthiers (Ann. Sci. Nat., 1852) are so often consulted, that it may 

 be useful to explain how we understand and name the same parts. In pi. xi., fig. 2, 

 8' and 0' are the 8th and 9th terga ; the anterior gonapophyses are seen to be 

 attached to them below ; a (figs. 2 and 4) is the base of the same appendage, but the 

 twisted ends are incorrect ; the 8th sternum is seen at the back (figs. 2 and 4) ; 

 a' represents the outer, / the inner pair of posterior gonapophyses. 



