THE EGGS OF INSECTS. 45 



pairs ; others in irregular quantities ; others singly ; 

 others in large patches or symmetrical figures ; and 

 in nearly all cases they are attached to the sub- 

 stances upon which they are deposited, by means of a 

 peculiar secretion with which the parent is furnished 

 for that purpose. 



As an instance of the beautiful symmetry with 

 which insect eggs are placed side by side in regular 

 succession by instinct of the parent, those of the 

 Great White Butterfly, Pieris Brassicce, may be 

 instanced, as they often form white patches on cab- 

 bage leaves at a certain season, which on exami- 

 nation look exactly like a beautiful piece of lace- 

 work, with each minute opening filled by a globule 

 of some semi-transparent substance, so exquisite is 

 the regularity with which they have been deposited. 

 The well-known Moth, Clisiocampa Neustria, lays 

 her eggs with equally beautiful regularity, though 

 in a different position. They are deposited in 

 the autumn, and, consequently, having to pass 

 the winter before they are hatched, a wonderful 

 instinct teaches the Moth not to place them upon 

 the leaves of plants, with which they would fall and 

 be destroyed, but on the branches, round which they 

 form those graceful little bracelets of minute 

 beads which every lover of a garden must often 



