244 
NATURAL HISTORY OF 
never fails to approach the mouth of its hole, that 
there may be no obstacle to the development and 
escape of the perfect beetle, which is of much larger 
size than the larva, and not furnished with instru- 
ments of equal efficiency for penetrating wood.* 
These insects lay a considerable number of eggs, 
which they deposit in the crevices and fissures of 
trees. They are of an oblong form, and usually of 
a dirty-yellow colour. Those of some of the larger 
species are nearly equal in size to the eggs of many 
of the smaller birds. The following figure on the 
they have no doubt shrunk considerably from their 
original dimensions. 
Like the generality of insects that deposit their 
eggs in holes and narrow fissures, into which the 
extremity of the body could not readily be intro- 
duced, the female Prioni are provided with an in- 
strument "which issues from the terminal segment 
of the abdomen, and forms a canal along which the 
egg slides in security to the place destined for its 
reception. This instrument is of a horny consist- 
ence, and generally bears a few small teeth or angu- 
lar projections at the point on the outer side, which 
left represents those of 
P. gig anteus ; but as the 
specimens from which 
they are taken have 
been long preserved, 
Olivier’s Entom. iv. p. 4. 
