OF THE APHIS ABIETIS. \)\) 



there are a vast number of small canals opening into it, something like 

 the grains of corn going from the stalk. Each of these canals contains 

 one egg or more. The large and long bags hold the eggs as they come 

 from the smaller canals till the time of laying. 



Near the anus these two unite into one, or open into one which may 

 be called vagina, which is a common duct to them, and the reservoir of 

 the male semen. The reservoir for the male semen is a round bag 

 whose duct opens externally, and is the passage for the penis. There 

 are two small glands, one on each side of this bag. 



A dragon-fly has the largest eyes of any insect : it has a vast num- 

 ber of black spots which move with our eye, as they do in the grass- 

 hopper, but there is one. principal one in the centre of the others. They 

 copulate in October. 



The attitude of the dragon-fly in this act is very singular. The penis 

 is about the middle of the body of the male, and the vagina of the 

 female at the extremity of the abdomen ; and, during the act, the male 

 embraces the head of the female with the forceps at the end of the tail. 

 The female is in a circular position, the male, therefore, has his head 

 and wings at liberty and manages the flight. 



Of the Tenthredo Abietis. Linn. Syst. Nat. 193. [Aphis Pini, or 

 Aphis Abietis. The description does not apply to any of the 

 Tenthredinidce.~\ 



This fly has four wings like the bee ; two very large and two much 

 smaller. The wings are very large for the size of the body, do not 

 lay flat or horizontal over the upper part of the abdomen, but their 

 inner edges are raised, and they fall off slantingly on the side : how- 

 ever, this position varies. The colour of the body is of a light brown, 

 but the wings are green, being the colour of the tree they frequent. 

 They are of two sizes, at least in the abdomen, which is longest in the 

 female ; at least the smaller one does not lay eggs, therefore I suppose 

 it to be the male. 



They are different from the common insect in having but two states : 

 the first being neither maggot nor chrysalis, but rather appearing to 

 be an insect of the second class, viz. spider, bug, &c. [Aptera] and 

 afterwards getting wings. 



Although possessed of long wings, yet I suspect their flight is but 

 very short ; for in a spruce fir I found them breeding for several years, 

 although this tree was only a few feet from others of the same land, 

 where none were ever found. 



I suspect their life is but short, something like the silk-moth : that 

 the male dies when he has completed the copulation ; that the female 

 lays her eggs, and dies ; and that probably neither sex eat when in the 



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