Apparatus of this kind for placing eggs in positions favourable to their development is by no means confined to these insects, for examples may be found in other Orders. Sirex, the so-called Tailed Wasp, has a long straight one, which is often supposed to be a sting, and the insect itself is not unfrequently taken for a gigantic wasp or hornet. When the ovipositor of our subject is looked at with the unassisted eye, it appears to consist of two curved blades placed side by side, with an internal groove on each. The apparatus, however, is not quite so simple: it is made up of six chitinous rods, of which four--the two above, and the two central ones--are developed from the ninth segment of the abdomen, while the two lower ones spring from the eighth. It is not difficult to test these statements. Specimens are plentiful; and as the ovipositor in this insect is large, and easily broken up into its component parts, it may well serve as an introduction to the study of these organs in other Insects--the Saw-flies, for example. When the insect is about to deposit her eggs, she selects a spot where the soil is light, and bending the ovipositor nearly at a right angle to her body, thrusts it into the ground as far as possible. Then, by a muscular effort, the plates of the ovipositor are separated, and several eggs travel down the passage formed by the central pair of rods into the hole. This is repeated time after time, till the operation of egg-laying is completed. This takes place in the autumn, and the young emerge from the eggs in the spring. When they come out they are tiny copies of the adults; but they do not acquire wings till after several months. The ovipositor of the female appears after the second moult, and till this organ is developed no difference is apparent between the young insects. The chief interest of the male insect lies in its wings, for the first pair (the _teg´mina_) are the organs with which it produces its ‘love-songs.’ Kirby comments on the fact that Lichtenstein, in the _Linnaean Transactions_ (iv. 51), ‘draws attention to the eye-like area in the right wing-case of the males of this genus,’ adding that that author seemed ‘not to be aware that De Geer had noticed it before him, as a sexual character; and also, with good reason, supposed that it assists these animals in the sounds they produce.’