FEMALE GKENEKATIVE OKOANS OF MELOLONTHA. 



337 



passages, with the organs appended to them, although appropriated to 

 different functions, strikingly resemble the organs met with in the 

 other sex. 



(881.) In the female Fig. 169. 



of Melolontha the ovaria 

 are long tubes, forming 

 two distinct fasciculi 

 symmetrically situated 

 on the two sides of the 

 body. At their com- 

 mencement (fig. 169, 

 u u) the ovigerous tubes 

 are slender, and the ova 

 which they contain at 

 this point are in a very 

 rudimentary state of de- 

 velopment; they gene- 

 rally dilate, however 

 (tti); and as they ex- 

 pand, the ova are seen 

 to attain larger dimen- 

 sions. Near its termi- 

 nation, each ovarian tube 

 assumes a granulated 

 texture (ss); and they 

 all ultimately open into 

 the corresponding ex- 

 cretory canal (r r). 



(882.) All the ova- 

 rian tubes of one side are 

 united into a bundle, by 

 a ligament (y x) which 

 Joh. Miiller * traced to the dorsal vessel, and believed to be a vascular 

 canal adapted to bring blood immediately into the tubes wherein the 

 ova are formed ; but no satisfactory evidence has been adduced in proof 

 of the existence of such an extraordinary communication, and the thread 

 in question is most probably a mere ligamentous connexion. 



(883.) Taking the higher animals as a standard of comparison, we 

 may suppose the formation of the eggs in these tubes to be accomplished 

 in the following manner : Tn the upper part of the tube (u) is formed 

 the yelk, enclosed in its peculiar membrane, and provided with that 

 wonderful germ from which, after impregnation, the future being is to 

 be developed ; as the yelk slowly descends to the more dilated parts of 

 the canal (t t), it becomes clothed with the albumen which constitutes 

 * Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Nat, Cur. vol. xii. pt. 2. 



z 



Female generative organs of the Cockchafer (Melolontha 

 vulgar is): 'ss,tt,uu, ovigerous tubes; y x, their liga- 

 mentous origin ; r r, excretory canals ; /, common ovi- 

 duct; pp, gluten- secretors; no, spermatheca. 



