INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. ' 151 
wasp and Lepidoptera*; in the hive-bee they anaes to 
be shorter>. 
> IV. We are next to consider the Ovipositor, or instru- 
ment’ by which numerous insects are enabled to: intro-: 
duce their eggs into their appropriate situations, and 
where the new-born larva may immediately meet with’ 
its destined food. As this instrument is one of the most 
striking peculiarities with which the wisdom of the Crr- 
ator has gifted these little animals, and in many cases is 
extremely curious and wonderful, both in its structure: 
and modes ‘of operation—though on a tormer occasion I 
gave you a brief account of several kinds of them‘, I 
shall now enter more at large into the subject, and de- 
scribe these often complex machines, as they are exhi- 
bited in‘most of the different Orders of insects. : 
With regard to the Coleoptera Order, there are doubt- 
less numerous variations in the structure of this organ ; 
but very few have been noticed, and those chiefly belong 
to insects whose grubs feed on timber. In these it is 
usually retractile one part within another, like the pieces 
of a telescope: in Buprestis it consists of three long 
and sharp amine, the two lateral ones forming a sheath to 
the intermediate one, which probably conveys the eggs?: 
im Elater it is‘a:cylindrical organ, terminating in a pair 
of conical joints, which seem to form a forceps, ‘and in- 
cluding a tube probably conveying the egg to the for- — 
ceps, which perhaps introduces it®: The Ovipositor of 
Prionus coriarius differs from that of Callidium viola- 
ceum, and many Capricorns-before described‘: it consists 
merely of a long bivalve piece ending in a kind of for- 
« Swamm. 4. xix. f. 4. 3. > Ibid. f. 3. © Vor. I. p. 358—. 
d De Geer iv.127. t. ivaf2 17s © Wed. TA3! t. vif 1b. 
* Von. I. p. 355. 
