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After pairing, the female, by means of her powerful ovipositor, bores a hole obliquely to the pith, and lays therein from ten to twenty slender white eggs, which are arranged in pairs, somewhat like the grains on an ear of wheat, and implanted in the limb. She thus oviposits several times in a twig, and passes from one to another, until she has laid four or five hundred eggs.
In some few cases also the male possesses similar organs, which are wanting in the female, such as the receptacles for the ova in certain male fishes, and those temporarily developed in certain male frogs. The females of most bees are provided with a special apparatus for collecting and carrying pollen, and their ovipositor is modified into a sting for the defence of the larvae and the community.
But natural selection can and does often produce structures for the direct injury of other animals, as we see in the fang of the adder, and in the ovipositor of the ichneumon, by which its eggs are deposited in the living bodies of other insects.
The ovipositor has therefore lengthened its extensible tube and pushed beyond the feather stopper driven in by the lead. The eggs are in one packet; they number about three hundred. When the beak and eyes are rendered inaccessible, when the body, moreover, has no wounds, the laying still takes place, but, this time, in a hesitating and niggardly fashion.
Lying sideways, if not interfered with, the insect in a few moments gives no signs of life beyond a fluttering of the antennae and palpi, a pulsation of the abdomen and a convulsive uplifting of the ovipositor; but, if irritated with a slight touch, it stirs its four hind-legs, especially the third pair, those with the big thighs, which kick vigorously.
It is of a blackish lead color; a, end of tibia bearing a tenant hair, with the tarsal joint and large claw; b, spring; c, the third joint of the spring, with the little spine at the base; figure 163, the supposed ovipositor; a, the two blades spread apart; b, side view. The mouth-parts in this genus are much as in Tomocerus, the maxillæ ending in a lacinia and palpus.
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