STATES OF INSECTS. (Hgg.) 93 
size before the larva is excluded. It seems to me likely 
enough, that in this and many of the above cases in which 
the egg is supposed to grow, it is rather an extension of 
the flexile membrane that forms their exterior propor- 
tioned to the growth of the included embryo from food 
it finds within the egg, than from any absorption from 
without. 
vi. Shape. We are accustomed to see the eggs of dif- 
ferent species of oviparous animals so nearly resembling 
each other in form, that the very term egg-shaped has 
been appropriated to a particular figure. Amongst those 
of birds, with which we are most familiar, the sole vari- 
ations are shades of difference between a globular and 
oval or ovate figure. ‘The eggs of insects, however, are 
confined by no such limited model. They differ often 
as much, both as to their shape, sculpture, and appen- 
dages, as one seed does from another ; and it is not im- 
probable that, if duly studied, they would furnish as good 
indications of generic distinctions as Geertner has dis- 
covered in those of plants. ‘Their most usual form in- 
deed is globular, oval, or oblong, with various interme- 
diate modifications. We meet with them ovate, or of 
the shape of the common hen’s egg, flat and orbicular, 
elliptical, conical, cylindrical, hemispherical, lenticular, 
pyramidal, square, turban-shaped, pear-shaped, melon- 
shaped, boat-shaped, of the shape of an ale-stand, of a 
drum, &c. >, and sometimes of shapes so strange and pe- 
® Rai Hist. Ins. 265. 
> Eggs of various shapes are given Pirate XX. Fic. 3—23. See 
also Brunnich. Entomologia 4. N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xvi. 245. Reaum. 
ii. ¢. iil. iv. xiv. xxvi. xxvii. &c. 
