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TEXT-BOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY 



The egg, or ovum, when laid is not always ripe or perfect, but, as 

 in those of ants, continues to grow after oviposition. Others are laid 



some time after the embryo has begun 

 to form ; and in the flesh-flies the larva 

 hatches before the egg is deposited. 



Insects as a rule instinctively lay their 

 eggs near or upon objects destined to be 

 the food of the larva; those of cater- 

 pillars on leaves, those of many flies on 

 meat or carrion, those of Copris and 

 other dung-beetles in dung, those of 

 aquatic insects in water, while many 

 oviposit in the earth or in plants (Fig. 

 482), or in the bodies of animals destined 

 to be the hosts of the parasitic larvae. 

 As the eggs are preyed upon by mites and 

 other animals, the contrivances and modi- 

 fications of the mode of egg-laying, and 

 the situations in which they are placed, are almost endless. Many 

 insects lay their eggs in a mass, covered with a gummy substance ; 



FIG. 483. Eggs (e) of Hydro- 

 bins (?) and their capsules, from 

 which the larva, Fig. 452, hatched. 

 Emerton del. 



FIG. 484. Egg-masses of Chironomus : A, string of eggs of C. dorsalis, divided into sections 

 to show both sides. , twisted fibres which traverse the string of eggs. C, egg-mass of Chirono- 

 mus (*p). D, egg-mass of a third species. E, part of Z>, more highly magnified, f, developing 

 eggs, two stages. After Miall. 



