108 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



other spider; but even then she did not take to them, 

 which we attributed to the presence of the other, as 

 all spiders nourish mutual enmity. Upon removing 

 the stranger, hov»ever, she showed the same indifTer- 

 ence to her eggs as before, and we concluded that, 

 after having lost sight of them for a short time, she 

 was no longer able to recognize them.* 



A more extraordinary method of hatching eggs oc- 

 curs in several insects, thence termed ovo-viviparous, 

 which retain the eggs within their bodies till they are 

 hatched ; and in this way they appear, like larger ani- 

 mals, to produce young mstead of eggs. We do not 

 here allude to the cochenille insects Ibrmerly mention- 

 ed; for though these cover their eggs with their 

 bodies, it is after they are laid and imbedded in gos- 

 samer. Neither can these singular insects be proper- 

 ly said to sit upon their eggs, inasmuch as the mother 

 always dies when she has tinished laying. 



The guiTer {Blennius ovo-viviparus, Lacepede), 

 a British sea-fish, common under stones at low-water 

 mark, affords an instance of this singular mode of the 

 eggs being hatched in the body of the mother; and it 

 is remarkable that when the young are ready to 

 appear, she leaves her usual haunts on the coast, and 

 goes farther out to sea, that they may be out of the 

 reach of their natural enemies. f Our common viper 

 (^Coluber berus, Linn.) is also ovo-viviparous, as are 

 several other reptiles; though it is an exception to the 

 general rule in this class. We caught a female of the 

 nimble lizard {Lacerta agilis, Linn.) on a heath 

 near Sorn, Ayrshire, in July, and kept it for some time 

 under a glass, where it produced six young ones; but 

 in consequence of improper food, or of confinement, 

 they all soon died. J This lizard is said to be some- 

 times oviparous. The observations also of the elder 



^ ^. R, + Lacepede, Poissons, ii, p. 497. t J- R- 



