INSECTA. 



dilated parts of the canal *"* 126 - 



(, ), it becomes clothed 

 with the albumen which 

 constitutes the white of 

 the egg ; and ultimately, 

 before quitting the nidus 

 of its formation, receives 

 from the granular termi- 

 nation of the ovary its J 

 last integument or shell. 

 Thus completed, it passes 

 into the excretory canal 

 (r, r) ; and this, meeting 

 the corresponding tube 

 derived from the ovaries 

 of the opposite side, joins 

 it to form the common 

 oviduct {I) through which 

 the egg is conducted out 

 of the body. 



(328.) But we must 

 now advert to certain ap- 

 pendages connected with 

 the common oviduct. 

 These are of two kinds ; the gluten-secretors and the spermalheca. 



The gluten-secretors (Jig- 126, p, p ) are glandular caeca 

 opening into the common egg-canal, and are apparently destined 

 to furnish a glutinous fluid with which the eggs become invested 

 before they are expelled from the body and thus they are fre- 

 quently united into long chains and variously shaped masses ; or 

 else the adhesive varnish thus secreted serves to glue the ova in 

 situations favourable to the developement of the embryo. 



The other organ, or spermatheca (Jig. 126, w, o), has a widely 

 different office, being a receptacle provided to receive the seminal 

 secretion of the male during copulation : it is always situated upon 

 the upper aspect of the oviduct, into which it opens by a small ori- 

 fice surrounded by a thickened margin or sphincter, embracing the 

 neck of the bag, and so disposed as either to retain the enclosed fluid,, 

 or to allow it to escape into the oviduct. That this organ really does 

 receive and retain the seminal liquor is proved by the presence of 

 seminal animalcules in its contents ; but the matter has been placed 



