ORGANS OF THE OUEEN. 



229 



I have found the channel k, k, to contain a mem- 

 brane of extreme tenuity, only made visible with 

 difficulty, and this is remarkably convoluted, after the 

 manner of the epididymis of higher animals. Tracing 

 the channel onwards till it perforates the side of the 

 common oviduct turned from us in Fig. 42, or towards 

 us in Fig. 45, a bifurcation is detected, with one 

 channel, apparently wide and indefinite, which is 



Fig. 45.— Passage Connecting Oviducts with the Exterior of the Body 

 (Magnified Ten times). 



sp, Spermatheca ; ag, Appendicular Gland ; a, Upper, and d, Lower Path for Eggs ; 

 be, Bursa Copulatrix ; p, Fertilising Pouch ; in, m', Muscles for Contracting 

 Side Path. 



quickly lost by its becoming confluent with the lower 

 part of the oviduct, whilst the other enters a 

 central and curiously-folded apparatus {p, Fig. 45), 

 which, for a reason to be presently given, I shall 

 denominate the " fertilising pouch." I have strong 

 reasons for supposing that the path from the bursa 

 copulatrix {be) — into which the male organs are 

 locked by the horned pneumophyses (see page 203) — ■ 



