INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 157 



bud of some blossom a ; but in time they diverge, and 

 sometimes become convoluted 5 ; they generally termi- 

 nate in a slender simple filament, but in the louse in a 

 fork c ; they are sometimes extremely long, as in the 

 wasp and Lepidoptera d ; in the hive-bee they appear to 

 be shorter e . 



IV. We are next to consider the Ovipositor, or instru- 

 ment by which numerous insects are enabled to intro- 

 duce their eggs into their appropriate situations, and 

 where the new-born larva may immediately meet with 

 its destined food. As this instrument is one of the most 

 striking peculiarities with which the wisdom of the CRE- 

 ATOR has gifted these little animals, and in many cases is 

 extremely curious and wonderful, both in its structure 

 and modes of operation though on a former occasion I 

 gave you a brief account of several kinds of them f , I 

 shall now enter more at large into the subject, and de- 

 scribe these often complex machines, as they are exhi- 

 bited in most of the different Orders of insects. 



With regard to the Coleoptera Order, there are doubt- 

 less numerous variations in the structure of this organ ; 

 but very few have been noticed, and those chiefly belong 

 to insects whose grubs feed on timber. In these it is 

 usually retractile one part within another, like the pieces 

 of a telescope : in Buprestis it consists of three long 

 and sharp lamina, the two lateral ones forming a sheath to 

 the intermediate one, which probably conveys the eggs s : 

 in Elater it is a cylindrical organ, terminating in a pair 

 of conical joints, which seem to form a forceps, and in- 

 cluding a tube probably conveying the egg to the for- 



a Herold Schmetl. t. v./. 10. 12. b PLATE XXX. FIG. 12. 



c PLATE XXII. /. 2. b. d Swamm. /. xix. / 4. b. c tt'id.f. 3. 

 f VOL. I. p. 355. s De Geer iv. 12?. /. iv./. 17. 



