GERMS OF EGGS. 39 



in their interior. There were some whose whole 

 body was so remarkably clear as to allow of my very 

 distinctly observing- the rings. On fixing- attention 

 more closely upon the latter, I observed the egg 

 open, and the larva appear in its place. Having 

 compared these eggs with those just laid, I con- 

 stantly found the latter of a milky whiteness, com- 

 pletely opaque, and smaller by one half, so that I 

 had no reason to doubt of the eggs of ants receiving 

 a very considerable increase in size; that in elongat- 

 ing they become transparent, but do not at this 

 time disclose the form of the grub, which is always 

 arched*." 



The germ in the es:g of the garden-spider (Epeira 

 diadema) is described by the accurate Heroldt, as 

 appearing to the eye in form of a minute white point 

 immediately under the shell, and in the centre of the 

 circumference. On examining this point more nar- 

 rowly, it is found to be of a lenticular shape, and 

 composed of innumerable whitish granulations of a 

 globular form, differing only from the globules of the 

 yolk in being smaller and more opaque, as may be 

 seen by squeezing out the contents of a spider's egg 

 into a watch-glass. The most singular circumstance 

 observed by Heroldt was, that in some species of 

 spiders an egg appeared to have a considerable num- 

 ber dispersed upon different points of the surface; 

 but all these ultimately united into a single germf. 



The eggs of the glow-worm {Lampyris iioctihica)^ 

 as we ascertained from those deposited by one wliich 

 we found in 1829, at Rudesheim, on the Rhine, are 

 golden yellow, somewhat resembling cherry-tree gum, 

 while the internal substance is similar in consistence 



* M. P. Huber on Ants, p. 68. 



f Heroldt, Exercit. de Generat. Aranearum in Ovo, and bis 

 Unterg. iiber die Bildung der Wizbellosen Thiere im Eie. 



d2 



