GENERATION OF ANIMALS, I. xv.-xvi. 



Sometimes too Cephalopods copulate while both 

 creatures are lying prone, but it has not yet been 

 observed whether this is done for the purpose of 

 generation or for some other cause. 



(3) As regards Insects, some of them copulate, and XVI 

 in those cases the young are generated from animals ^^^ insects. 

 which are of the same name " and nature as them- 

 selves, just as happens in the blooded creatures ; 

 instances of this are locusts, cicadas, spiders, wasps, 

 ants. Others, although they copulate and generate, 

 generate not creatures of the same kind as them- 

 selves but only larvae ^ ; and these insects moreover 

 are not produced out of animals at all but out of 

 putrefying fluids (in some cases, solids) ; instances of 

 this are fleas, flies, cantharides. Others neither are 

 produced out of animals nor do they copulate ; such 

 are gnats, mosquitoes "^ and many similar kinds of 

 insects. In most of the sorts which copulate the 

 females are larger than the males ; and the males do 

 not seem to have any seminal passages. Speaking 

 generally, the male does not insert any part into the 

 female ; but the female does so into the male up- 

 wards from below : this has been observed in many 

 instances, [and similarly as concerns mounting,] the 

 opposite in a few ; but we have not yet enough 

 observations to enable us to classify them distinctly. 

 We find that the females are larger than the males 

 not only in Insects but also in most of the oviparous 

 fishes, and likewise in those quadrupeds which are 

 oviparous ; the reason being that the size is an advan- 

 tage to them when a great bulk is produced inside 



in name and same in nature ; ofKLvvfiov is same in name but 

 not in nature. * See Introd. § 77. 



' It is not possible to say exactly what insects are meant. 



47 



