l.'='(>4.] . 233 



be about six times as long as wide, the. insect occupying the entire egg 

 except the anterior one-seventh part which was empty, and always 

 making its exit by bursting or gnawing a slit through the shell of the 

 egg just behind the empty part. 



No doubt, before the legs of the little orchelimuin were well devel- 

 oped, a lively imagination might have detected a strong resemblance 

 between the embryo insect, as it lay in the egg, and the worm-like larva 

 of many Lepidoptera. But are we thence to conclude that this worm- 

 like stao-e in the esg is homologous to the worm-like larva state of 

 Lepidoptera and other Orders of in.sects ? Several focts seem to forbid 

 such an inference. 



\st. The egg of the Catydid (Plati/pliyUum concavmn Harr.) of which 

 egg I possess specimens and which is described by Harris, (InJ- Ins. p. 

 158,) is only about h longer than wide, and consequently the young 

 Catydid can scarcely be elongate and worm-like in any stage in the 

 egg, unless it is curled up head and tail together. But the egg of a 

 species of (Edipoda which I once hatched out, (probably (E. Carolina 

 Lin ,) was about three times as long as wide, cylindrical and rounded 

 at each end, and Harris describes the eggs of such GrylUdx Leach 

 (=Locu)>tarise Latr. ) as oviposit in the earth, as being '^ elongated 

 and nearly of an ellipsoidal form." {Iii/. Ins. p. 156.) Consequently, 

 as I know that the embryo Onhelimum is not curled up in the egg, 

 and there is a regular gradation in the shape of the egg from Orcheli- 

 mum to Platyplii/llum, it is not probable that any Orthoptera Saltatoria 

 can ever be curled up in the egg, as is the case with many Lepidoptera, 

 the eggs of which are generally more or less spherical ; whence we may 

 conclude that the embryo Catydid is probably only about one-half longer 

 than wide and is therefore not at all " worm-like." 



'Ind. Many lepidopterous larvas are anything but worm-like. The 

 larva of Limacodes scapha Harr. and generally all Liraacodian larvae, 

 and the larva of Papilio Podalirius (Europe) which is said to be " snail- 

 like," may be quoted as examples. Are we to conclude, therefore, 

 that these larvae pass their worm-like stage in the egg, like Grass- 

 hoppers, and are born as mature insects, with the exception of the 

 wings ? And if not, why not ? 



'ird. No insect moults its external integument, after assuming the 

 pupa state, until its final change into the imago, and no imago moults 



