12 THE EGG. 



varies from within a liundred up to several millions, c. g.^ 

 the wasp will lay as many as 30,000 ; the bee, from 40,000 

 to 50,000 ; and as many as 20''*,000 are laid Ly a little 

 hemipterous insect [aleyrodes-cheUdonii). But all these 

 numbers are far exceeded by the white ant {termes-fataUs)^ 

 the productive female, or queen, of which will lay as many 

 as 60 eggs a minute — 3, GOO an hour, 86,400 a day, 

 2,419,200 a month, and the total sum of 211,449,600 a 

 year — thus far exceeding the number of eggs laid by any 

 other animal in creation. 



5. Size. — The size of the eggs varies generally in pro- 

 portion to that of the insect producing them, although the 

 reverse of this is sometimes the case. 



Commonly the eggs laid by one female are all of the 

 same size, but in several tribes those containing the germ 

 of the female are larger than those that are to produce a 

 male, although the opposite is tlie case sometimes even of 

 this. 



The eggs of ants, water mites, and some others, grow 

 larger after being laid. 



6. Shape. — There is a great variety in the shape and 

 markings of the eggs of insects, and they are by no means 

 uniform, as are the eggs of birds ; the commonest forms, 

 however, are globular, oval or oblong, with various interme- 

 diate modifications ; they are also flat and orbicular, ellip- 

 tical, conical, cylindrical, hemispherical, lenticular, pyra- 

 midal, square, turban-shaped, pear-shaped, melon-shaped, 

 boat-shaped, of the shape of an ale-stand, of a drum, and 

 of many other strange shapes. 



Some of them are delicately corrugated and marked 

 over their surface, or raised upon little foot-stalka or 

 s terns. 



