INSECTS. 265 



many Hemiptera heteroptera there are seven, as also in many Cara- 

 lici ; the Cockchafer and other Lamellicornia have six, the Stag- 

 Beetle (Lucanus cervus) twelve, &c. The length of these tubes is 

 different, but on the whole is more marked in proportion as the 

 number is fewer, as in the Butterflies ; they contain the eggs in a 

 string; the largest and most developed are at the lower end, the 

 smaller above. Here the ovarial tubes run out into a fine thread 

 which LEON DUFOUR terms Suspensory Ligament, whilst J. 

 MUELLER considers the parts to be vessels which connect the ovaries 

 with the dorsal vessel. In most instances the threads unite on 

 each side to form a cord; in others (in Phasma ex. gr.} they 

 proceed separately to the dorsal vessel. 



From the inferior termination of the ovaries proceed two oviducts 

 (tuba 3 ), which coalesce to form a common tube beneath the rectum: 

 it is ordinarily much shorter than the tuba; in the cockchafer, on the 

 contrary, it is longer than these. Different horny plates surround the 

 dilated inferior termination of this common tube; it has a sphincter 

 muscle to contract it, as well as several others J . Generally it falls, 

 with the rectum, into a common cloaca, or it opens beneath and 

 in front of the anus. Sometimes the external sexual organs of the 

 female, generally seated in the ninth ring of the abdomen, which is 

 included and hidden in the eighth, are prolonged into an appendage 

 externally. Here belongs the tubular vagina of Flies (vagina tubi- 

 formis), in Chrysis, &c. 2 , which is formed of the last abdominal 

 rings that can be drawn within each other like an opera-glass. In 

 others the vagina is two-valved (vagina bivalvis), as in Locusts 

 (Locustce), and projects beyond the last segment of the abdomen as 

 an ensiform compressed prolongation. In others there is a per- 

 forator borer (terebra) or a sting (aculeus) ; here, besides the bi- 

 valved vagina, there is a sharp organ for puncturing, with serrated 

 edges, and composed of one or of two horny threads ; when at rest 

 the sting is concealed within the abdomen ; it is connected with a 

 poison-gland 3 . 



who has given a highly magnified figure of these parts, each ovarium consists in the 

 Honey-Bee of 150 tubes, Bill, natur. p. 471, Tab. xix. fig. 3. 



1 See STRAUS, Anat. des anim. art. p. 299, and the figures of the Cockchafer, 

 ibid. PI. 5, figs. 4, 5 m, PI. 6, fig. i Jc, V . 



3 Also in Mycterus curculo'ides amongst the Coleoptera, Ann. des Sc. nat. Tom. vi. 

 PL 19, fig. 5. 



8 Comp. here especially BURMEISTER, Handb. der Entom. I. s. 209215, Taf. 12. 



