40 THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 



lower portion by delicate horizontal marks, which 

 towards the top curve in the opposite direction, 

 and assume the effect of laminae laid one over the 

 other, forming a kind of scaly cap. 



The eggs of the beautiful Red-undcrwing Moth, 

 Catocala Nupta, present somewhat the appearance 

 of a small Echinus, being regularly ribbed from the 

 crown, which is rather depressed, and having 

 between the ribbings horizontal marks from one rib 

 to another. The eggs of the " Lesser Tortoise-shell," 

 one of our handsomest native Butterflies, are pump- 

 kin-shaped, that is to say, in the form of a long oval 

 spheroid, depressed at each end, and only marked 

 with simple longitudinal ribs, which are, however, 

 very strongly defined. 



The eggs of other classes of insects differ 

 materially from those of the JLepidoptera ; many 

 of them presenting characteristics so singular, and 

 forms so strange that they would never be thought 

 to be eggs at all, had they not been proved to be so 

 by careful experiment. 



The eggs of the Water Scorpion, for instance, 

 are curiously crowned with seven delicate spirets, 

 which give them the appearance of thistle seeds 

 rather than eggs ; and there are many other examples 

 of striking external analogy between the seeds of 



