90 STATES OF INSECTS. 



the insect producing them, though in some instances 

 small ones produce larger eggs than those laid by bigger 

 species. Thus the eggs of many Aptera, as those of that 

 singular mite Urqpoda vegetans, and of the bird-louse 

 found in the golden pheasant, are nearly as large, it is 

 probable, as the parent insect ; while those of the ghost- 

 moth (Hepialus Humuli) and many other Lepidoptera, 

 &c. are vastly smaller. This circumstance perhaps de- 

 pends principally on the number they produce : the ma- 

 jority of them, however, are small. The largest egg 

 known, if it be not rather an egg-case, is that of a spectre 

 insect (Pkasma dilatatum), figured in the Linnean Trans- 

 actions a , being five lines in length and three in width, 

 which probably approaches near the size of that of some 

 humming-birds. The largest egg of any British insect 

 I ever saw was that of the common black rove-beetle 

 (Staphylinas olens) sent me by Mr. Sheppard — this is a 

 line and half long by a line in width. But we do not often 

 meet with insect-eggs exceeding a line in length. A vast 

 number are much smaller : those of Ephemeras are more 

 minute than the smallest grains of sand b , and some almost 

 imperceptible, as those of the subcutaneous moths, to the 

 naked eye. Commonly the eggs laid by one female are 

 all of the same size ; but in several tribes, those con- 

 taining the germe of the female are larger than those that 

 are to give birth to a male. This appears to be the case 

 with those of the Rhinoceros beetle {Oryctes nasicornis c ), 

 and according to Gould with those of ants d . As the 

 female in a vast number of instances is much bigger than 

 the male, it is not improbable that this law may hold 



* iv. t. xviii./. 4. 5. *> De Geer ii. 638. 



r Bibl. Nat, i. 132. b. ' Gould 36. 



