United States or Montserrat ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Some hours or even a day before the laying, that egg by itself represents or even exceeds in bulk the whole of the ovigenous apparatus. This is the egg which is on the point of being laid. It is about to descend into the oviduct, in its proper order, at its proper time; and the mother has no power to make another take its place.
Finally she withdrew her oviduct, and effaced, though without particular care, the traces of the hole in which her eggs were deposited, rested for a moment, walked away, and repeated the operation; not once, but many times, first here, then there, all over the area at her disposal. Her behaviour was precisely the same as that of the Decticus, except that her movements were more deliberate.
The Queen-bee would thus lay female eggs or male eggs according as she fertilized them or not while they were passing into her oviduct. Coming from Germany, this theory cannot but inspire me with profound distrust.
When the mate has been chosen, both prepare the nest to receive the eggs, which will soon be ready. It is during this period that the fertilizing fluid is placed in the lower end of the egg-duct, whence the fertilizing cells, by their power of motion, quickly make their way to the egg, which has just begun its journey down the oviduct and is as yet without a shell.
"Tape worms," so-called by egg candlers, are detached portions of the membrane lining of the egg. "Liver spots" or "meat spots" are detached folds from the walls of the oviduct. Such abnormalities are rare and not worth worrying about. The shells of eggs vary in shape, color and firmness. These variations are more a matter of breed and individual idiosyncrasy than of care or feed.
In Vertebrates we find two such ducts in both sexes in the embryo, originally formed apparently by the splitting of a single duct. In the male one of these ducts becomes connected with the testis while the other degenerates: the one which degenerates in the male forms the oviduct in the female, while the one which is functional in the male degenerates in the female.
The Chigoe lays about sixty eggs, depositing them in a sort of sac on each side of the external opening of the oviduct. The young develop and feed upon the swollen body of the parent flea until they mature, when they leave the body of their host and escape to the ground.
She continuously elaborates eggs; every moment one appears at the orifice of the oviduct. The king remains near her, to give his assistance when occasion arises; hence he has received the title, absolutely justified under the circumstances, of Father of the People. Around the couple zealous attendants crowd.
It is this egg, necessarily this egg and no other, that will presently be laid upon the provisions, whether these be a mess of honey or a live prey; it alone is ripe, it alone is at the entrance to the oviduct; none of the others, since they are farther back in the row and not at the right stage of development, can be substituted at this crisis. Its birth is inevitable.
The aperture is not closed, except by the bunch of woody fibres, which, parted at the moment when the eggs are laid, recover themselves when the double saw of the oviduct is removed. Sometimes, but by no means always, you may see between the fibres a tiny glistening patch like a touch of dried white of egg.
Word Of The Day