Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1889-05-15
EGGS OF INSECTS.
Some Are Round. Some Like n Pyramid
and Others Like Flask.

E6GS OF INSECI >.
Some Are Round. Some Like Pyramid
and Others Like Flask.
Insects eggs are not all of an oval
form, like those of birds, but some
are like pear. some like an orange, |
some like pyramid, and some like
flask.
The egg of the gnat. for instance,
may be compared, in shape, to that OF
a powder-hask. and the mother gnat
lays about three hundred at y time |
Now, each egg by itself. would sink 10
the bottom of the water; yet the gnat
puts TIE whole three hundred to-
gether in the form of u little boat, J
and in such way that they will all |
swim on the surface of the water; and
a very curious way she has of manag-
ing this.
Like other insects, the gnat has six
legs. Four of these (the four fore
legs) she fastens to "A floating leaf, on
to the side of bucket If she is on
the water contained in bucket. Her
body is thus held level with the water,
except the last ring of her abdomen,
which is u little raised. This being
done, she begins to make use of her
other two legs Cor hind legs), and
crosses them in the shape of the letter
X. The open part of this y, next to
her tail, serves as IL kind of scaifold-
ing, to support the eggs she lays, UNI
til the boat is formed. Each egg,
when laid, is covered with a kind of
glue; and the gnat holds the first laid
egg in the angle of the X until the
second egg is laid by its side, and
glued to it; she then Clues another
egg to its other side. All these stick
together thus:
making kind of triangle. or figure of
three, and this is the beginning of the
boat. Thus she goes on, piling egg
upon egg, always keeping the boat in
proper shape by her useful hind legs.
AS the boat grows in size she pushes
1t from her by degrees. still adding to
the unfinished end next to her body.
When the boat is half built her hind
legs are stretched out thus:
The X, or cross form, is no longer
wanted, and she holds up the boat as
cleverly as if it were done with two
outstretched arms. -.gAs~,,
The boat is at length completed,
and an excellent boat it is, quite
water-tight. For, though it is very
small and delicate, yet no tossing OF
the waves will sink it; and nothing can
fill it with water, or turn it upside
down. In fact, the glue with which il
is covered prevents it from ever
being wet. Even if the boat be pushed
down to the bottom of the water. UP
it comes again quito dry; so that it is
better than the best life-boat that has
ever yet been invented. t.sssss,
The eggs of insects are not, like
those of birds. always smooth. but
are sometimes ribbed, and sometimes
tiled, or otherwise sculptured or
carved on the outside.
The shell of an insects egg is rarely
or never brittle like that of a bird.
but composed of tough membrane,
which in some instances can be
stretched out, as appears from the
eggs OF ants and some other insects,
growing considerably larger in the
process of Matching
The mother insects usually dying
before their eggs are Matched do not
sit upon them like birds except in
the singular instance of the earwig,
which appears TO attend more to
shifting the eggs about to places where
they may receive moisture than to
Matching them by covering them. Ants
shift their eggs acco ding to the
changes of the day and night. and also
of the weather, placing them near the
surface of their nests when it is warm
and dry, and deep down when it is
cold or wet. -
In consequence of being exposed to
the same temperature, all the eggs OF
any particular species, in any given
district. are Matched exactly at the
same time. or at most within few
days; and when such eggs are numer-
Gus an immense number of caterpillars
make their appearance all at once on
plants and bushes. AMI give rise To the