248 Dr. T. A. Chapman's 



etc. At 2 p.ui. I found three small batches of eggs laid, 

 two presenting the usual clear aspect, but the third, which 

 the beetle was at the moment depositing, consisted of two 

 eggs that were actually hatching and of six others which 

 presented the imaginal eyes well developed, but no jaws, 

 spiracles, or other larval parts visible. 



The eggs that I had supposed to be quite undeveloped, 

 usually presented a rather opaque aspect, except at the 

 unattached (head) end, where about one-fourth or one- 

 fifth of the egg was apparently occupied with clear yellow 

 fluid, and it had struck me as curious that the eye-spots, 

 which were the first imaginal parts to be seen, occurred 

 on this transparent area. I now, however, understood that 

 this transparent region had no relationship to a similar 

 one that occurs in the newly-laid eggs of Zygaenids 

 (Anthrocera) amongst the Lepidoptera, and that it was 

 really the larval head, after considerable development of 

 the embryo had taken place. Most of the eggs are laid 

 at this stage, when the embryo is well-developed but 

 before the eye-spots appear. I now carefully examined 

 other eggs and found some with a fairly uniform aspect, 

 from end to end. I saw several such eggs actually laid, 

 and examined them immediately, and found I could treat 

 them as transparent objects sufficiently well to see that 

 the greater part of their contents were in small rounded 

 masses, but that at the free end there was within the 

 shell a delicate membrane and inside this several large 

 rounded processes, one nearly half the diameter of the egg 

 across, another smaller, with a clear angular space between 

 them, and smaller ones extending down the egg. I make 

 no doubt these are the early cephalic lobes of the embryo 

 with further segmental divisions. 



So far as I have noticed, these are the youngest eggs 

 that are laid, the greater number are rather more advanced, 

 and they may even be so far advanced as to show the eye- 

 spots, and as an exceptional occurrence, they may be just 

 ready to hatch. 



I regret that I am ignorant of the methods of examining 

 the younger eggs, and of overcoming the difticulties pre- 

 sented by the tough leathery egg-shell and the very 

 delicate contents, but I feel satisfied that what I have been 

 able to observe justifies the conclusion just stated, that 

 the eggs have always undergone some development when 

 laid and sometimes have made a near approach to hatching. 



