EGGS OF INSECTS. 



The eggs of insects are not, like those of birds, 

 always smooth ; but are sometimes ribbed, and some- 

 times tiled, or otherwise sculptured or carved on the 

 outside. 



The shell of an insect's egg is rarely or ever brittle 

 like that of a bird, but composed of a tough membrane 

 which, in some instances, can be stretched out, as ap- 

 pears from the eggs of ants and some other insects 

 growing considerably larger in the process of hatching. 



The mother insects, usually dying before their eggs 

 are hatched, do not sit upon them like birds, except in 

 the singular instance of the earwig, which, from the 

 proceedings of one kept by me in a glass, in March, 

 1832, appears to attend more to shifting the eggs 

 about to places where they may receive moisture, than 

 any thing like hatching by covering them. Ants shift 

 their eggs according to the changes of the day and 

 night, and also of the weather, placing them near the 

 surface of their nests when it is warm and dry, and 

 deep down when it is cold or wet. 



In consequence of being exposed to the same tem- 

 perature, all the eggs of any particular species, in any 

 given district, are hatched exactly at the same time, 

 or at most within a few days ; and when such eggs 

 are numerous, an immense number of caterpillars 

 make their appearance all at once on plants and 

 bushes, and give rise to the notion that they are 

 brought by winds, or generated by what is called 

 blighting weather, though this is as absurd as to say 

 the wind could bring a flock of cattle, or that the 

 blight could generate a flight of sparrows or rooks 

 without eggs to hatch them from. 



By looking carefully on the bark of rose or currant 

 bushes, or on the back ribs of gooseberry leaves, the 

 eggs may be found sometimes in patches, sometimes 

 in rows, whence the caterpillars are hatched that creep 

 into the buds, or stream over the leaves and devour 

 them. 



