420 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



the operation of oviposition occupies a week. Bl. germanica, according 

 to Hummel, carries its capsule about with it for the space of a fortnight 

 at least. Mr. Curtis states that it is retained in its situation until a con- 

 venient place is found for its reception by iheforcejjs of the female ; but 

 the insect is furnished with no such instrument, it being the tightness of 

 the membranes extending between the apical pieces of the body, that 

 the capsule is thus retained. The capsules are attached by means of 

 a glutinous secretion, in such situations as the females select as most 

 fit for their reception. The slit part of the capsule is strongly coated 

 with cement, so as to be even stronger than the other parts. In this 

 capsule, the young larvae are hatched, and immediately discharge a 

 fluid which softens the cement and enables them to push open the 

 slit through which they escape, after which the slit shuts again so 

 closely, that it appears as entire as before. (Goeze in Naturforscher, 

 St. 17. ; Fraula Mem. Bruxell. t. iii. p. 219.; Frisch. Beschr, v. t. iii.) 



In B. orientalis the length of the capsule {fg- 51. 17.) is not quite 

 twice that of its breadth (five lines long by two and three quarters 

 lines wide, and two lines thick) : its sides are very convex, with eight 

 impressions of each side*, thus indicating sixteen eggs. In the cap- 

 sule of another species, given to me by W. Baird, Esq., by whom it 

 was found on board of vessels coming from China, and which I have 

 no hesitation in regarding as that of B. americana, the length is 

 greater, and the edges nearly straight and parallel (six lines long by 

 three lines wide, and one and three quarters lines thick), with about 

 fifteen impressions on each side, indicating thirty eggs {Jig. 51. 13. ; 

 51. 14. transverse, 51. 15. longitudinal, section of the same). 



I discovered numerous specimens of one of our small native species, 

 Ectobia nigripes, in spots clothed with rushes, heath, and grass, at 

 Black-gang Chine. The males w^ere generally found by sweeping the 

 sedges and rushes ; but the females by disturbing the heath near the 

 roots, when they start out and run with the greatest quickness. 

 One of the females was in the act of carrying her capsule attached 

 to the extremity of the abdomen. This capsule {Jig. 51. 16.) is 

 more kidney-shaped than those described above : it is a line and a half 



* In the Faune Frangaise Orthopt. pi. 2. the capsule of B. orientalis is figured 

 without impressions. My description is made from a capsule still remaining at- 

 taclied to the ahdomen of the female of that species. In the same plate, the capsules 

 of B. lapponicaare longitudinally compressed j which, I think, must be equally in- 

 correct. 



