INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 157 
bud of some blossom a ; but in time they diverge, and 
sometimes become convoluted b ; they generally termi- 
nate in a slender simple filament, but in the louse in a 
fork c ; they are sometimes extremely long, as in the 
wasp and Lepidoptera d ; in the hive-bee they appear to 
be shorter c . 
IV. We are next to consider the Ovipositor, or instru- 
ment by which numerous insects are enabled to intro- 
duce their eggs into their appropriate situations, and 
where the new-born larva may immediately meet with 
its destined food. As this instrument is one of the most 
striking peculiarities with which the wisdom of the Cre- 
ator has gifted these little animals, and in many cases is 
extremely curious and wonderful, both in its structure 
and modes of operation — though on a former occasion I 
gave you a brief account of several kinds of them f , I 
shall now enter more at large into the subject, and de- 
scribe these often complex machines, as they are exhi- 
bited in most of the different Orders of insects. 
With regard to the Coleoptera Order, there are doubt- 
less numerous variations in the structure of this organ ; 
but very few have been noticed, and those chiefly belong- 
to insects whose grubs feed on timber. In these it is 
usually retractile one part within another, like the pieces 
of a telescope : in Buprestis it consists of three long 
and sharp lamince, the two lateral ones forminga sheath to 
the intermediate one, which probably conveys the eggs s : 
in Elater it is a cylindrical organ, terminating in a pair 
of conical joints, which seem to form a forceps, and in- 
cluding a tube probably conveying the egg to the for- 
* Herold Schmctt. t. v.f. 10. 12. b Plate XXX. Fig. 12. 
c Plate XXII. /. 2. b. " Swanim. /. xix. /. 4. b. e Ibid.f. 3. 
f Vol. I. p. 355—. s De Gccr iv. 12?. /. iv./. 17. 
