100 MR. A. MURRAY ON THE EARLY STAGES OF 



two, the first, as already mentioned, drawn from tlie egg of the 

 Leaf-insect, and the second from that of the Cockroach, both how- 

 ever from dried specimens. 



Tliat drawn from the egg of the Leaf-insect was as follows. 

 The outer case, or capsule, or egg as it is generally called, is 

 about the size of a small pea, of a corticaceous honeycombed tex- 

 ture, lined within with a porcelain-like shell, and fitted with a 

 little conical lid. Within it is an under membrane, which con- 

 tains the yelk. This yelk is sometimes dried up and hardened, 

 and may assume the form of a flasked-shaped transparent capsule. 

 It had done so in my former specimen ; and its shape and appearance 

 was so thoroughly that of a capsule, that it misled myself and every 

 one who saw it, and I described it as such. I said that if we* re- 

 garded the outer case or egg as the egg, then the inner membrane 

 should be the chorion, and the flask- shaped capsule the yelk ; but 

 as this capside had a determinate form (which, indeed, is incon- 

 sistent with the liquid condition of a yelk), I thence inferred that, 

 as it could not be the yelk, it might be the chrysalis. 



When I made these remarks, I had very imperfect materials to 

 generalize from. This I fully explained. I said, " I have only 

 examined one addled egg, and it chanced to be one with what I 

 suppose to be the chrysalis in it. Some more fortunate individual 

 will, I hope, ere long have the opportunity of settling the question ; 

 and if, on opening eggs at an early period, he find a maggot, and 

 at later periods this capsule, I think I shall then be entitled to say 

 that it has been settled in my favour." Last year I was desirous 

 of introducing a supply of these interesting creatures as objects 

 of attraction to the Royal Horticultural Society's Conservatory, 

 and I procured a supply of eggs from my friend Professor Fayrer 

 of Calcutta. Unfortunately these proved aU addled, and I have 

 thus had ample material for investigation (so far as dried specimens 

 allow), and have perfectly satisfied myself that the egg does not 

 difier in its parts from any other egg. The outer case is merely 

 the shell, the inner membrane is the chorion, and what I took for 

 a capside with a determinate shape is merely the yelk hardened 

 into a particular form. I have found it assuming more or less of 

 this form according to circumstances — sometimes only a part of 

 it, and at others nearly the whole being so shaped. 



The other instance which I brought forward was drawn from the 

 egg of the Blatta, and was published in 1856. This was the insect 

 from the study of which Professor Owen arrived at his conclusions. 

 He says in his * Lectures on Invertebrate Animals ' (p. 437, edition 

 1855), " Metropolitan duties shut out much of the field of nature ; 



