Eccs, &c. OF ANTS. 69 
found the longest to be those only in 
which the worms were disclosed in my 
my presence. If I removed them from 
the workers, before they had attained their 
full length and transparency, they dried 
up, and the worms never quitted them. 
Isit, then, to the care which the workers 
take in passing them across their mouths, 
that we must attribute the secret of their 
preservation ? Do these eggs require this 
humidity, or do they absorb a part of it, 
to furnish nourishment to the little worms 
they contain ? It appears at Jeast highly 
probable; and the observations of M. 
Reaumur give weight to this opinion. 
I have discovered in his writings, that 
there are other eggs, which also increase 
in size,—as those lodged in the galls of 
different trees, which are occasioned by 
Cynips*, or other insects of the same kind. 
* To these insects we are indebted for that valu- 
able article of commerce, the gall-nut. The Cyniys 
is furnished with a finely-pointed instrument, with 
which it wounds the leaves and other parts of the 
tree, for the sake of depositing its eggs. The 
puncture of the leaves, &c. gives rise to those excres- 
