EGGS GF APHIDES. 1 13 



Bonnet, however, whose opinion is entitled to 

 considerable authority, seems to think tliat the egys of 

 aphides which are destined to snr\ ive tlie winter are 

 very dilFerent from other eggs; and he snj)poses that tlie 

 insect, in a state nearly perfect, quits the body of its 

 mother in that covering which shelters it from the cold 

 in winter, and that it is not, as other germs are in the 

 egg, surrounded by f<)od, by means of which it is de- 

 veloped and supported. It is nothing more, he con- 

 jectures, than an asylum of which the aphides ap- 

 pearing at another season have no need ; and it is tor 

 this reason that some are produced naked and others 

 enveloped in a covering. If this be correct, the mo- 

 thers are not then truly oviparous, even in autumn, 

 when they deposit these pseudo-eggs; since their young 

 are almost as perfect as they ever will be, in the asy- 

 lum in which they are naturally placed at birth. It 

 was in vain that Bonnet endeavoured to preserve 

 eggs of this sort in his chamber till spring, in conse- 

 qut nee, he imagines, of the want of a certain degree 

 of moisture which they would have had out of doors 

 We have been more successful, through the precaution 

 of not taking the eggs from their native tree till Feb- 

 ruary, and in 18.30 we had a brood of several hundreds 

 produced of the oak aphis (^Jlphis Qnercus),* 



The failure on the part of Bonnet leads us to re- 

 mark, with the younger Huber, that ants are more 

 skilful in this respect than naturalists, and an.\iously 

 nurse, during winter, tbe eggs of aphides, which they 

 collect with great care in the autumn. The interest- 

 ing narrative of the discovery of this we shall give in 

 Ruber's own words. 



' One day in November,' says he, ' anxious to 

 know if the yellow ants [Foriuica flava) began to 

 bury themselves in their subterranean chambers, I dtJ-> 

 stroyed, with care, one of their habitations, story by 



* .T. R. 

 vor.. VI. 10* 



