4.32 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 
It is probable that some insects of almost every order 
hybernate in the egg state: though that these must be 
comparatively few in number, seems proved from two 
considerations: first, That the majority of imsects as- 
sume the imago, and deposit their eggs in the summer 
and early part of autumn, when the heat suffices to hatch 
them in a short period: and secondly, That the eggs of 
a very large proportion of insects require for their due 
exclusion and the nutriment of the larvae springing from 
them, conditions only to be fulfilled in summer, as all 
those which are laid in young fruits and seeds; in the in- 
terior and galls of leaves; in insects that exist only in 
summer, &c. &c. The insects which pass the winter in 
the egg state are chiefly such as have several broods in 
the course of the year, the females of the last of which 
lay eggs that, requiring more heat for their development 
than then exists, necessarily remain dormant until the 
return of spring. 
The situation in which the female insect places her 
eggs in order to their remaining there through the win- 
ter, is always admirably adapted to the degree of cold 
which they are capable of sustaining; and to the ensur- 
ing a due supply of food for the nascent larve. ‘Thus, 
with the former view, Gryllus verrucivorus and many 
other insects whose eggs are of a tender consistence, de- 
posit them deep in the earth out of the reach of frost; 
and with the latter, Bombyx Neustria, B. castrensis, B. 
dispar, and some other moths, departing from the ordi- 
nary instinct of their congeners, which teaches them to 
place their eggs upon the leaves of plants, fix theirs to 
the stem and branches only. That this variation of pro- 
cedure has reference to the hybernation of the eggs of 
