May— July 1SS9.] 



PSYCHE. 



207 



The egg tubes are unequal in length ; 

 those nearer to the thorax are the 

 shortest, and inserted directly in the be- 

 ginning of the egg-canal ; those nearer 

 to the tip of the abdomen are the longest, 

 and, being incurved, may be somewhat 

 longer than the ovarium. I think it by 

 no means improbable that the fine fila- 

 ments of all the &^^ tubes may reach the 

 dorsal vessel. At least I vs^as not able 

 to find the end of any filament before 

 that point, and the finest filaments in 

 the band measures only .001 mm. in 

 thickness. Therefore the cylindrical 

 prolongation at the apex of the ovarium 

 .139 mm. in diameter v\^ould be thick 

 enough to contain several thousand fila- 

 ments, as they are here thinner than in 

 the band. The white hyaline filaments 

 originating from the border previously 

 described belong to the hand-shaped 

 dilatation and cannot be connected with 

 the Q'g^ tubes, being of a much larger 

 diameter, .ooS mm. 



The beginning of the o.'g^ tubes was 

 empty in the queen of E. I'ippertii., 

 only later they are filled with irregularly 

 placed nuclei ; but the apparently 

 younger queen of T. gilvus showed the 

 ^gg tubes filled with such nuclei directly 

 from the beginning of the tubes. Then 

 follow elliptical epithelial cells with 

 nuclei, placed one after the other. The 

 tube of .016 mm. diameter begins to show 

 short transversal compartments, each 

 witli three rows of transversally placed 

 egg-cells, followed by somewhat irregu- 

 lar compartments, containing rounded 

 cells each with a germinal vesicle and dot ; 

 the cells are placed very nearly together. 



Then follow quadrangular compartments 

 with a single &%%<i filled with epithelial 

 cells with nucleoli, and series of elon- 

 gated cells about ten in number along each 

 side. These compartments become by 

 and by more elongated, with eighteen 

 elongated cells on each side, the con- 

 tents of the eggs grow darker, a nd the 

 germinal vesicle smaller. The following 

 eggs are filled with globular cells each 

 containing a strongly reflecting dot, and 

 later suddenly after three or four succes- 

 sive larger ones appear ripe eggs of 

 dark amber color with a less visible ger- 

 minal vesicle. They are .106 to .113 

 mm. in length and .076 to .079 mm. in 

 thickness ; the germinal vesicle is .033 

 to .035 mm. in diameter, the germinal 

 dot .006 to .008 mm. in diameter. 

 These eggs have sixteen to eighteen cells 

 along each side, and eight to nine such 

 cells along the smaller sides. The 

 longer sides of the compartments are 

 rounded. The size of the eggs increases 

 till they are ready to be laid. I took 

 several measures of eggs .iiS mm. in 

 length and .102 mm. in thickness with 

 a germinal vesicle of .102 mm. in diam- 

 eter and a germinal dot of .015 mm. in 

 diameter ; of riper eggs .307 mm. in 

 length and .256 mm. in thickness; the 

 largest eggs .710 to .769 mm. in length 

 and .31S to .581 mm. in thickness. 

 The disc of the cylinders in which the 

 ^%^ tubes are inserted measures .217 to 

 .256 mm. in diameter, and the central 

 hole, through which the &^^ has to pass 

 .03S to .05 1 mm. ; therefore this hole 

 has to undergo a remarkably large dila- 

 tation, about ten times its diameter to 



