72 STATES OF INSECTs. (Legg. 
thread, or simply fasten them in different. situations, 
either constantly remaining near them (the Telaria), or 
wholly deserting them (the Retiarie). The eggs of one 
of these last Lister describes as often fixed in a very sin- 
gular situation—the cavity at the end of a ripe cherry ; 
and thus, as he expresses it—‘** Stomachi maxime delica- 
tuli quoties hanc innocuam baccam non minus ignoranter 
quam avide devorarunt*.” 
Herman informs us, that the species of the genus Che- 
lifer carry their eggs in a mass under their belly®. 
Madame Merian gives an account of two species of 
Blatta, which she affirms carry an egg-pouch about with 
them—one species (B. gigantea ?) she describes as car- 
rying its eggs in a globular pouch of web like certain 
spiders, and the other in a brown bag, which, when 
alarmed, it drops and makes off*. But this admirable 
paintress of natural objects was not always correct in her 
statements‘? : it seems very improbable, from the habits 
of those species of which we know the history, that any 
of them should spin a pouch of web for their eggs. 
‘The only insects certainly known to spin an egg-pouch 
like the spiders, are the Hydrophilide, a family of water- 
beetles. Some of these, as Hydrocharus lividus, carry 
them about with them, like Lycosa saccata, attached to 
the under side of their body, as M. Miger observed*, 
and others when they are finished desert them. That 
* Lister De Aran. 56. Tit. 15. 
> N. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xxvi. 447. © Ins. Surinam. t. 1. 
4 A striking instance of this may be seen in her forty-ninth plate, 
in which she has clapped the rostrated head of Fulgora laternaria 
upon the body of a Cicada, affirming it to be the former fly in its 
previous state! This might be a trick upon her. 
“ N. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xv. 489. 
