84 STATES OF INSECTS. 



of these, as for instance the Admiral Butterfly ( Vanessa 

 Atalanta), glue each egg carefully to its destined leaf by 

 alighting on it for a moment. Another butterfly (Hip- 

 parchia Hyper -antlius) whose caterpillar is polyphagous, 

 drops hers at random on different plants. In general it 

 may be observed, that all those larvae which live in so- 

 litude, as in the interior of wood, leaves, fruits, grain, 

 animals, &c, proceed from eggs laid singly by the female, 

 which is usually provided with an appropriate instrument 

 for depositing them in their proper situation. Thus the 

 nut- weevil {Balaninus Nucum Germ.) and also that of the 

 acorn [B. Glandium) pierce a nut or an acorn with their 

 long beak, and then deposit in the hole an egg, from 

 which proceeds the maggot that destroys those fruits. 

 Leeuwenhoeck asserts that the common weevil (Cala?i- 

 dra granaria) adopts the same process, boring a hole in 

 every single grain of corn before it commits an egg to it, 

 and at the same time, by this manoeuvre, prepares a small 

 quantity of flour to serve for the food of the tender grub 

 when it is first hatched 3 . It is probable that the Rhyn- 

 cophorous or weevil tribe in general chiefly use their beaks 

 for the purpose of depositing their eggs in different vege- 

 table substances, and perhaps principally in fruit or grain. 

 The tribe of gall-flies (Cynips) on the contrary, whose 

 economy, detailed in a former letter 5 , interested you so 

 much, bore an opening for the egg with their spiral ovi- 

 duct, which also conveys it. 



Another large tribe of insects depositing their eggs 



singly, are those which feed upon the bodies of other 



animals, into the flesh of which they are either inserted, 



or placed so as speedily to find their way into it. Some 



* Epist. 1687. b Vol. I. p. 448-. 



