CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



* Insects begin their lives either by being hatched from 

 eggs or produced alive by the female ; commonly they 

 are hatched in the form known as maggots, caterpillars, 

 or grubs, but they are never generated by decaying 

 vegetables, putrid water, bones, carcnsses, dung, or any 

 other matter, dead or alive, excepting their own insect 

 forerunners. They come out of these matters constantly, 

 but, if the observer will watch, he may often see the 

 arrival of the insects, the laying of the eggs, and be able 

 to satisfy himself as to the gradual development and the 

 manner of breeding, and that the progeny is produced by 

 the female insect. 



The eggs are usually laid soon after the pairing of the 

 male and female, and are, as a rule, deposited on or near 

 whatever may be the food of the larvae. They are laid 

 singly or in patches, and are sometimes attached by a 

 gummy secretion to the leaf or whatever they are laid 

 on. Occasionally they are fastened by a short thread, or 

 raised (like the heads of pins) on a stiff foot-stalk of 

 hardened viscid matter. Such insects as insert their eggs 

 in living animal or vegetable matter are furnished with a 

 special egg-laying apparatus or ovipositor, such as a 

 borer, or organs enclosing bristle-like points or saws, by 

 means of which the female pierces a hole, and passes the 

 egg down into the wounded spot. 



For the most part insect eggs hatch shortly after they 

 are laid, but sometimes they remain unhatched during 

 the winter, and it is believed that, where circumstances 

 are unfavorable for development, they may remain 

 unhatched for years; but this point is one of those on 

 which more information is needed. They have been 



"Manual of Injurious Insects." Ormerod. 



