STATES OF INSECTS. 83 



then crosses her two hind legs, and in the inner angle 

 which they form, retains and supports the first laid egg, 

 as it proceeds from the anus. In like manner she also 

 supports the second, third, &c, all of which adhere to 

 each other by means of their glutinous coating, until she 

 feels that a sufficient number are united to give a stable 

 base to her little bark ; she then uncrosses her legs, and 

 merely employs them to retain the mass until it is of the 

 required size and shape, when she flies away, and leaves 

 it to its fate floating upon the water*. 



It may not be out of place to mention here a re- 

 markable circumstance which not seldom attends a kind 

 of water-scorpion (Naucoris F.) occasionally to be met 

 with in collections of Chinese insects. Its back is often 

 covered with a group of rather large eggs, closely ar- 

 ranged; but whether these are its own eggs or those of 

 some large species of water-mite {Hydrachna Ma ill.) has 

 not been clearly ascertained. On the former supposition, 

 the ovipositor must be remarkably long and flexile to 

 enable the animal to place the eggs on its back. In con- 

 firmation of the latter it may be observed, that the spe- 

 cies of the genus Hydrachna usually attach their eggs 

 to the body and legs of aquatic insects, as for instance 

 H. abstergens to the water-scorpion (Nepa cinerea), &c. b 



2. After having thus laid before you some of the pro- 

 cedures of those insects that usually deposit their eggs 

 in groups, either naked or defended by coverings of va- 

 rious kinds, I next proceed to a rapid survey of those of 

 the species that commonly deposit them singly. Some 



a Reaum. iv. 615—. t. xliv./. 2—7- 



,J N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xv. 445. Ros. iii. 156. 



G 2 



