54 THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 



of the Ichneumon tribe. This we learn from Vallis- 

 nieri, who minutely describes a small Ichneumon, 

 named I. Ovuliim (the Egg Ichneumon), which 

 provides for its own young in this way. He also 

 discovered subsequently that several other kinds of 

 Ichneumons attack insect eggs, having had an 

 opportunity of observing several individuals of one 

 species come from eggs of Saturnia Carpini, the 

 small Emperor Moth, in the shells of which he 

 found two holes — one, no doubt, pierced for the 

 deposition of the Ichneumon's eggs ; the other, that 

 by which the perfect Ichneumon escaped. 



Some insects are furnished with the means of 

 piercing the young shells of fruit-stones and nuts, 

 for the purpose of depositing an egg within them. 

 In these cases the egg is generally solitary, as 

 the supply of food is limited to one kernel — the 

 whole of which is evidently intended by the parent 

 of the egg for the banquet of its one singly placed 

 offspring. 



The eggs of insects whose larvze feed upon 

 particular plants are never laid upon any other — 

 even the various kinds of grasses being discriminated 

 with the greatest nicety, while the eggs of those 

 whose larvte are general feeders are placed indis- 

 criminately, on any convenient tree or plant. 



