GERM OF EGGS. 39 



in their interior. There were some whose whole bo- 

 dy was so remarkably clear as to allow of my very dis- 

 tinctly observing the rings. On fixing attention more 

 closely upon the latter, 1 observed the egg open, and 

 the larva appear in its place. Having compared these 

 eggs with those just laid, I constantly found the latter 

 of a milky whiteness, completely opaque, and smaller 

 by one-half, so that I had no reason to doubt of the 

 eggs of ants receiving a very considerable increase in 

 size; that in elongating they become transparent, but 

 do not at this time disclose the form of the grub, which 

 is always arched.'* 



The germ in the egg of the garden spider (Epeira 

 diadema) is described by the accurate Heroldt, as 

 appearing to the eye in form of a minute white point 

 immediately under th*e shell, and in the centre of the 

 circumference. On examining this point more nar- 

 rowly, it is found to be of a lenticular shape, and 

 composed of innumerable whitish granulations of a 

 globular form, differing only from the globules of the 

 yolk in being smaller and more opaque, as may be 

 seen by squeezing out the contents of a spider's egg 

 into a watch-glass. The most singular circumstance 

 observed by Heroldt was, that in some species of spi- 

 ders an egg appeared to have a considerable number 

 dispersed upon different points of the surface; but all 

 these ultimately united into a single germ.! 



The eggs of the glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca), 

 as we ascertained from those deposited by one which 

 we found in 1829, at Rudesheim, on the Rhine, are 

 golden yellow, somewhat resembling cherry-tree gum, 

 while the internal substance is similar in consistence 



* M, P. Huber on Ants, p. 68. 



1 Heroldt, Exercit. de Generat. Aranearum in Ovo, and his 

 Unters. iiber die Bildung der Wizbellosen Thiere im Eie. 



