STATES OF INSECTS. 89 



birds, and is surpassed only by that of fishes*. But the 

 number of eggs laid by different species, sometimes even 

 of the same natural family, is extremely various. Thus 

 the pupiparous insects may be regarded as producing 

 only a single egg ; Musca Meridiana L., a common fly, 

 lays two b , other flies six or eight; the flea twelve; the 

 burying beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo c ) thirty; May-flies 

 {Trichoptera K.) under a hundred; the silk- worm moth 

 about 500; the great goat-moth (Cossusligniperdd) 1,000; 

 Acarus americanus more than 1 , 000 d ; the tiger-moth ( Cal- 

 limorpha Caja) 1,600; some Cocci 2,000, others 4,000; 

 the female wasp at least 30,000 e ; the queen bee varies 

 considerably in the number of eggs that she produces in 

 one season, in some cases it may amount to 40,000 or 

 50,000 or more f ; a small hemipterous insect, resembling 

 a little moth (Aleyrodes proletella Latr.) 200,000. But 

 all these are left far behind by one of the white ants 

 [Termes fatale F. bellicosus Smeath.) — the female of this 

 insect, as was before observed s , extruding from her enor- 

 mous matrix not less than 60 eggs in a minute, which 

 gives 3,600 in an hour, 86,400 in a day, 2,419,200 in a 

 lunar month, and the enormous number of 211,449,600 

 in a year : probably she does not always continue laying 

 at this rate; but if the sum be set as low as possible, it 

 will exceed that produced by any other known animal in 

 the creation. 



v. Size. The size of the eggs is in proportion to that of 



a The sturgeon is said to lay 1,500,000 eggs, and the cod-fish 

 9,000,000. 



b Reaum. iv. 392. c See above, Vol. I. p. 350. 



d De Geer vii. 159. e See above, Vol. II. p. 109. 



i Ibid. 159. 166. s Ibid. 36—. 



