﻿36 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



lead to the belief that the insects must have been in great part, if not 

 entirely, drowned out in this locality. In default of direct observa- 

 tion, let us see to what conclusion a careful study of the structure of 

 the insect will lead us. 



At first view it seems singular that the eggs of an insect that ap- 

 pears in such countless myriads from Maine to Georgia, and from Vir- 

 ginia to Kansas, should have remained undiscovered either by farm- 

 ers or entomologists. Desiring to attract attention to the subject I 

 offered in the columns of the Prairie Farmer,, last September, a 

 reward of §>20,00 to any one who would send me the eggs of the insect ; 

 but no one claimed the reward. One of the obstacles that has stood 

 in the way of discovering these eggs is that, as soon as the worms have 

 multiplied so prodigiously as to attract attention, their natural enemies 

 become so multiplied that a very small per cent, of the worms 

 entering the ground issue again as moths. A second reason is that, 

 during seasons when the insect is not numerous and attracts no atten- 

 tion, no one thinks of searching for these eggs. A third reason is 

 that, as already stated, the moth does not oviposit in confinement. I 

 venture to suggest a fourth probable reason that has, hitherto, oc- 

 curred to nobody: it is that the eggs are, for the most part, secreted 

 where they are not easily seen. Structure is an infallible index to 

 habit. Look whichever way we may, in studying organic life, we find 

 perfect adaptation of means to ends — special organs to special pur- 

 poses. To approach at once the subject under consideration, we find 

 the ovipositors of insects, or rather the external parts that shield and 

 guide them, modified in a thousand ways to fit them for conveying the 

 eggs to their destination. Look at the piercing and boring and sting- 

 ing instruments of the Ichneumons, extending in some instances as in 

 Rhyssa, several inches from the tip of the body! Look at the more 

 or less perfect saws of the Saw-flies which insert their eggs in the ten- 

 der stems or in the parenchyma of leaves of many plants ! Examine 

 the ovipositor of the Cicada and of many of our tree-hoppers, and see 

 how admirably they are adapted to splitting and puncturing twigs ! 

 The slender-bodied Dragon-flies belonging to the genera JEschna and 

 Agrion have an instrument springing from the base of the penulti- 

 mate joint, composed of four slightly curved horny pieces, the outer 

 pair sharp and notched near the tip, and the inner pair both striate 

 and serrate, so as to perform the three oflices of awl, saw and file — the 

 whole admirably adapted for puncturing the stems of water plants. The 

 female of the common Plum Curculio has, lying beneath the pygi- 

 dium a beautiful horny exsertile spoon-shaped contrivance, with a 

 decurving point, wherewith to guide her egg beneath the skin of the 



