694 



THE NATURE BOOK 



to the common custom of insect life, the 

 insect which originates the oak apple is 

 abroad and active about Christmas time. 

 By patient search she may be found 

 creeping upward upon the twigs of oak 

 trees. In appearance she is not unlike 

 a small ant. She has no wings, and 



able to thrust her egg tube right down 

 among the tightly packed baby leaves 

 which lie snugly waiting for the call of the 

 springtime to rouse them from their 

 slumbers. 



\\'hat follows is soon told. Down her 

 long o\'ipositor the fly passes her eggs, 



"^.^ 



AGAMIC FEMALE OF OAK APPLE INSECT 

 Ascending oak twig to oviposit in terminal bud. 



must thus accomplish all her journey- 

 ings afoot. 



Let us follow in imagination the doings 

 of this intrepid insect. She makes her 

 way to one of the buds of the oak tree — 

 usually selecting a terminal bud — and 

 climbs upon it. She is equipped with a 

 long ovipositor, or egg tube ; and by 

 means of this instrument she is about to 

 anticipate the course of the springtime 

 which she is destined never to kncnv. 

 Cleverly she inserts her ovipositor be- 

 tween the closely wrapped bud scales. 

 She is too wise to attempt the futile task 

 of boring through the substance of the 

 scales themselves ; but by searching out 

 a weak spot in the armour of the bud, at 

 a point where the scales overlap, she is 



one by one, and thus lays them without 

 difficulty right within the bud. at the base 

 of the young lea\-es. ^^^len she has 

 inserted as many eggs as she deems the 

 bud will support, she withdraws her 

 ovipositor, and crawls to another bud. 

 This she also inoculates ; and so on, until 

 her store of eggs is exhausted. Finally, 

 her labours o\-er, she dies, ha\-ing per- 

 formed the office by \-irtue of \\-liich she 

 holds a place in the economy of Nature. 



I need hardly say that to discover one 

 of these inoculated oak buds is by no 

 means an easy matter. The task may 

 almost be likened to the search for the 

 proverbial needle in a haystack ! But by 

 dint of perseverance — carefully splitting 

 one terminal oak bud after another, and 



