92 STATES OF INSECTS. 



(Nepce), of which they form so singular an appendage 3 , 

 which opinion is confirmed by De Geer, who observes 

 that when the water-scorpions are covered by an unusual 

 number of the eggs of the water-mites, they grow weak 

 and languid, and endeavour to rid themselves of their 

 parasitic appendages' 3 . It is most probable that the mite 

 lately named ( Uropoda vegetans), which is often found 

 planted as it were upon the bodies of various beetles, by 

 means of a long pedicle, through which, as the foetus by 

 an umbilical chord and placenta, it derives its nutriment 

 from the above animals, is at first so fixed in the egg 

 state, though before it is disengaged from the pedicle it 

 is hatched, since it is often found with its legs displayed 

 and quite active — this is the more probable, as the eggs 

 of the water-mite are fixed by a pedicle to the animals to 

 which they are attached c . I have met with a remarkable 

 instance, in which pedunculated eggs seem to draw nu- 

 triment from the mother, which brings the pedicle still 

 near to the nature of the umbilical chord. Those of the 

 small hemipterous insect which infests the larch before 

 alluded to, are attached to the anal end of the mother by 

 a short foot-stalk not longer than the ess. 



Dr. Derham seems to have observed, that the e&gs of 

 some Diptera, of the tribe of Tipulidce, also increase in 

 size before the larva is excluded d . It seems to me likely 

 enough, that in this and many of the above cases in which 

 the egg is supposed to grow, it is rather an extension of 

 the flexile membrane that forms their exterior propor- 

 tioned to the growth of the included embryo from food 



a Rosel iii. 152. b De Geer vii. 145. 



c Ibid. 123—. See above, Vol. I. p. 393. 

 d Raii Hist. Ins. 265. 



