350 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



upon which they are deposited, that they may not 

 be shaken off by the wind, or washed away by 

 rain. Some, again, make incisions into leaves, 

 and hide an egg in each incision ; whilst some 

 envelop their eggs with a soft substance which 

 forms the first aliment of the young animal ; and 

 some again make a hole in the earth, and, having 

 stored it with a quantity of proper food, deposit 

 their eggs in it. In all which we are to observe, 

 that the expedient depends not so much upon the 

 address of the animal, as upon the physical re- 

 sources of his constitution. 



The art also with which the young insect is 

 coiled up in the egg presents, where it can be ex- 

 amined, a subject of great curiosity. The insect, 

 furnished with all the members which it ought to 

 have, is rolled up into a form which seems to con- 

 tract it into the least possible space ; by which 

 contraction, notw^ithstanding the smallness of the 

 egg, it has room enough in its apartment, and to 

 spare. This folding of the limbs appears to me 

 to indicate a special direction ; for if it were 

 merely the effect of compression, the collocation of 

 the parts would be more various than it is. In 

 the same species, 1 believe, it is always the same. 



These observations belong to the whole insect 

 tribe, or to a great part of them. Other observa- 

 tions are limited to fewer species, but not, per- 

 haps, less important or satisfactory. 



I. The organization in the abdomen of the silk- 

 worm or spider^ whereby these insects form their 



