130 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



published ; for tliough, as lie tells us, he had never had the 

 pleasure of seeing one of them alive, the more interesting 

 parts of their structure can be studied as well in dead as in 

 living specimens. We ourselves possess several specimens 

 from New Holland, upon which we have verified some of 

 the more interesting observations of Reaumur. 



Virgil tells us, that in his time " the cicada burst the 

 very shrubs with their querulous music ;"* but we may 

 well suppose that he was altogether unacquainted with the 

 singular instrument by means of which they can, not poet- 

 ically, but actually, cut grooves in the branches they select 

 for depositing their eggs. It is the male, as in the case of 

 birds, which fills the woods with his song; while the 

 female, though mute, is no less interesting to the naturalist 

 on account of her curious ovipositor. This instrument, 

 like all those with which insects are furnished by nature 

 for cutting, notching, or piercing, is composed of a horny 

 substance, and is also considerably larger than the size of 

 the tree-hopper would proportionally indicate. It can on 

 this account be partially examined without a microscope, 

 being, in some of the larger species, no less than five linesf 

 in length. 



The ovipositor, or auger (tariere), as Eeaumur calls it, is 

 lodged in a sheath which lies in a groove of the terminat- 

 ing ring of the belly. It requires only a very slight pres- 

 sure to cause the instrument to protrude from its sheath, 

 when it appears to the naked eye to be of equal thickness 

 thi'oughout, except at the point, where it is somewhat 

 enlarged and angular, and on both sides finely indented 

 with teeth. A more minute examination of the sheath 

 demonstrates that it is composed of two horny pieces 

 slightly curved, and ending in the form of an elongated 

 spoon, the concave part of which is adapted to receive the 

 convex end of the ovipositor. 



When the protruded instrument is further examined 

 with a microscope, the denticulations, nine in number on 

 each side, appear strong, and arranged with great sym- 

 * "Cantu quenilae rumpent arbusta cicadte." Georg. iii. 328. 

 t A line is about the twelfth i^art of an inch. 



