^50 [Assembly 
positor serve as a groove to convey the eggs into this nest. They 
are placed in pairs side by side, but separated from each other by 
a portion of woody fibre, and they are fixed into the limb some¬ 
what obliquely, so that one end points upwards. When two eggs 
have been thus placed, the ovipositor is withdrawn for a moment, 
and is then inserted again, dropping two more eggs in a line with 
the first; and this operation is repeated until the fissure is filled 
fiom one end to the other. The insect then removes a short dis¬ 
tance, and commences making another nest, to contain two,more 
rows of eggs. She is occupied about fifteen minutes in making 
one of these slits and filling it with eggs; and frequently fifteen 
or twenty of these nests are formed upon one limb. Fifty nests 
have been counted in one instance, upon a single limb, extending 
along in a line, each containing from fifteen to twenty eggs in 
two rows—the whole appearing to be the work of one insect. 
After one limb is sufficiently stocked, the insect passes to another. 
She thus goes from limb to limb and from tree to tree, until her 
supply of eggs, consisting of four or five hundred, is exhausted. 
And by her assiduous labors in thus providing for a succession of 
her kind, she becomes so wearied and weak as to fall to the 
ground, in attempting to fly, and soon dies. 
From the wounds which are thus made in the limbs*the sap 
exudes, often profusely. This attracts numerous ants to the spot, 
to regale themselves upon this sweet fluid. The naturalist, Pon- 
tedera, who gave some attention to the operations of the insects of 
this family, says that when the eggs have been deposited, the 
insect closes the mouth of the hole with a gum, capable of pro¬ 
tecting them from the weather. M. Reaumur thinks this is only 
a fancy, as he could discover nothing of the kind. But‘t.o us it 
appeals quite probable that what Pontedera supposed was a gum 
which had been deposited by the parent insect, was»the dried 
juice of the twig. 
The fissures which the female makes, in which to deposit her 
eggs, are not the only wounds which this insect occasions upon 
the trees. It inserts its sharp beak into the bark for the purpose 
of sucking the sap, this being the nourishment on which the locust 
subsists. Although some of my correspondents express doubts 
