INSECTA. 



281 



( f ), which constitutes the ejaculatory F *8 



apparatus. Still, however, it is easy to 

 see that, although diversified in appearance, 

 the parts here found are essentially similar 

 to those met with in the cockchafer, and 

 represent respectively the same organs. 



(326.) The female apparatus of reproduc- 

 tion presents a general correspondence, both 

 in form and arrangement, with the sexual 

 parts of the male insect. The ovaria are 

 simple secreting sacculi, or elongated tubes, 

 in which the germs or ova are produced, 

 instead of the seminal liquor ; and the 

 excretory canals, or egg-passages, with the 

 organs appended to them, although appro- 

 priated to different functions, strikingly re- 

 semble the organs met with in the other 

 sex. 



In the female of Melolontha the ovaria are long tubes, form- 

 ing two distinct fasciculi, symmetrically situated on the two sides 

 of the body. At their commencement (Jig> 126, w, u) the ovi- 

 gerous tubes are slender, and the ova which they contain at this 

 point are in a very rudimentary state of developement ; they ge- 

 nerally dilate, however (, , t, i), and, as they expand, the ova are 

 seen to attain larger dimensions. Near its termination each ova- 

 rian tube assumes a granulated texture (s 9 *), and they all ulti- 

 mately open into the corresponding excretory canal (r, r). 



All the ovarian tubes of one side are united into a bundle, by 

 a ligament (v 9 #), which Joh. Miiller* traced to the dorsal vessel, 

 and believed to be a vascular canal adapted to bring blood imme- 

 diately into the tubes wherein the ova are formed ; but no satis- 

 factory evidence has been adduced in proof of the existence of such 

 an extraordinary communication, and the thread in question is most 

 probably a mere ligamentous connection. 



(327.) Taking the higher animals as a standard of comparison, we 

 may suppose the formation of the eggs in these tubes to be accom- 

 plished in the following manner : In the upper part of the tube (u) 

 is formed the yolk, enclosed in its peculiar membrane, and provided 

 with that wonderful germ from which after impregnation the future 

 being is to be developed ; as the yolk slowly descends to the more 



* Nova Acta Phys. Med, n. c. vol. xii. part ii. 



