206 



PSrCHE. 



[May— July 18S9. 



the end of the abdomen is divided into 

 divergent and downward bent branches. 

 The band as well as its cylindrical, 

 .apical prolongation is formed by the fine 

 filaments of the &g% tubes very closely 

 pressed together. There does not exist 

 a separate thread beginning at the base 

 of the abdomen and united with the fila- 

 anents of the following tubes, as observed 

 by Mr. Stein in other insects. So far I 

 was able to follow the filaments each of 

 them is prolonged to the apex, all run- 

 ning together. . I was not able to find a 

 -connection in a loop of the ends of the 

 filaments, as observed by Mr. Leydig 

 in other insects, but I confess that I was 

 not able to separate the ends, which are 

 very delicate. 



The ovarium is covered below the 

 bands with braids of egg tubes just as 

 above, but towards the base tubes with 

 niore developed eggs or even ripe eggs 

 begin to be visible and become by and 

 -by prevailing. Of course this will be 

 different in young queens ; in one of 

 T. gilvus^ for instance, the whole ova- 

 x-ium was covered with braids, and only 

 after removing them the more developed 

 -eggs appeared. 



An egg-canal (the beginning of the 

 oviduct) extends through the whole 

 ovarium, the calyx of Dufour and 

 Stein. It is situated in the centre of the 

 ovarium and begins blind near the first 

 segment of the abdomen, runs at first 

 straight, but soon makes a flattened 

 curve downward to the middle of the 

 length of the ovarium, followed by a 

 similar flattened curve upwards. In the 

 last fourth of the ovarium the canal is 



sloping down, and shortly before the end 

 bent downwards and inwards, and 

 continued in a free, short, cylindrical 

 tube, meeting the canal of the oppo- 

 site side, where the oviduct begins. 

 This egg-canal is pale yellow and 

 somewhat fleshy, at the beginning .32- 

 .38 mm. in thickness and becomes grad- 

 ually thicker, towards the end it is 

 .64-. 77 mm. It begins as a hollow tube, 

 just large enough to allow the passage 

 of one &gg^ but the part near the ovi- 

 duct is always somewhat dilated, when 

 the eggs have to pass through it. 



Around the egg-canal the ^gg tubes 

 are perpendicularly inserted so near each 

 other, that nothing of the outer surface 

 of the egg-canal remains free. Every 

 e^g-g tube is inserted in a short fleshy 

 cylinder, with a concave dish on top, 

 and a hole in the middle, much smaller 

 than the ^g%. I counted around the 

 blind beginning of the egg-canal six to 

 eight cylinders, but a part taken out of 

 the middle of the ovarium showed about 

 ten to twelve cylinders, very irregularly 

 placed, and about 20 rows in a pait 

 of the egg-canal of 4 mm. in length. 

 The cylinders are .3 mm. in length and 

 less thickened. A part of the egg-canal 

 of 4 mm. in length possesses at least 240 

 cylinders, and as the egg-canal by its 

 cur\'es is longer than the ovarium, there 

 must be at least 1500 cylinders and ^gg 

 tubes. But as the insertion towards the 

 end of the abdomen is very irregular and 

 closely pressed, I believe even this num- 

 ber is probably too small. The whole 

 substance of the egg-canal is very brittle, 

 at least in alcoholic specimens. 



