THE EGGS OF INSECTS. 51 



separate compartments, in each of which an egg is 

 to be deposited, and furnished with a supply of 

 honey to serve it as food in its inactive larva state. 

 But the habits of the Honey Bee are too well known 

 to need description here, a glass hive having long 

 since been invented as a kind of insect Vivarium, 'in 

 which the habits of one of the most interesting of 

 insects may be conveniently observed. 



Some kinds of Blatta deposit their eggs in a 

 kind of pouch, which completely protects them from 

 all ordinary kinds of attack. This pouch is very 

 curious, having somewhat the appearance of a small, 

 shallow, black leather bag, well filled, and then 

 tightly sewn up across the top. The first time I 

 found this curious object I was quite unable, as an 

 entomological tyro, to ascertain the nature of my 

 discovery, and was indebted to my lamented friend, 

 the late Miss J. Loudon, for the explanation of 

 its true character. 



Not only arc many lands of insects most careful, as 

 I have shown, in protecting their eggs from the in- 

 clemency of the weather, from accidental injury, or 

 from the attacks of enemies, whose prey they might 

 become without such protection ; but they also 

 exercise as careful a foresight in placing them 

 where the young larvae, on hatching, arc sure to 



