INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 147 
with the oviduct by a lateral undulating tube: in shape 
it is a rather irregular oblong, and is surmounted by a 
small orbicular vesicle, connected by a short tubular foot- 
stalk with the main reservoir*. A similar organ was dis- 
covered by Malpighi in the imago of the silk-worm, who 
denominates it the uterus ; to which indeed it seems ana- 
logous, and which he also regards as a reservoir for the 
sperm for the gradual fecundation of the eggs’. But in 
that fly the organ is of a rather different shape, and the 
interior vessel terminates in «several spherical vesicles‘. 
It is not improbable that in those insects whose eggs are 
gradually laid, this provision for their gradual fecunda- 
tion, if carefully sought for, might be detected’. Rif- 
ferschweils is of opinion, that in these cases the eggs 
are fertilized in their transit through the oviduct by 
sperm adhering to the folds of the cloace*: but this 
opinion seems less analogous to what takes place in other 
cases, with regard to the due preparation of the eggs for 
a safe and effectual transit‘. 
~? Herold Schmettert. t.iv. f. 1... &c. Pirate XXX. Fie. 12. d. 
> De Bombyc. 36. $, Tbid. 2. xil.f..1. Iand f..2..0. M, 
4d Swammerdam, in dissecting the female of Oryctes nasicornis, dis- 
covered a blind-vessel opening into the vagina, and at the other or 
immer extremity not terminated by any secretory tube, containing 
a yellowish matter, that seems analogous to the organ mentioned 
in the text; and in the hive-bee he found a similar organ covered 
with air-vessels, which he supposes to be connected with the Colle- 
terium (see above, p. 126.), and which he states to contain a slimy 
matter. Bibl. Nat.i. 151. b. 4 xxx. f. 10. g. 204. b. t. xxix. f. 3. é 
Perhaps likewise the organ discovered by M. L. Dufour in Scolia,— 
which he imagines to belong to the poison-secretor, and which he 
describes as a sac consisting of a double tunic, the exterior one mus- 
cular and the interior membranous, and filled with a blueish-green 
gelatinous matter (NV. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xxx. 388.)—may bea sper- 
matheca. © De Insector. Genital. 17. 
f T allude to those organs above described (p. 126.) for the secre- 
£2 
