Читать книгу The Butterflies of the British Isles - Richard South - Страница 7

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Butterfly eggs are of various forms, and whilst in some kinds the egg-shell (chorion) is elaborately ribbed or fluted, others are simply pitted or covered with a kind of network or reticulation; others, again, are almost or quite smooth. If the top of an egg, such as that of the Purple Emperor (Plate 28), is examined under a good lens a depression will be noted, and in this will be seen a neat and starlike kind of ornamentation. In the middle of this "rosette" are, present in all eggs, minute apertures known as micropyles (little doors), and it is through these that the spermatozoa of the male finds entry to the interior of the egg and fertilization is effected. The changes that occur in the egg after it is laid are of a very complex nature, and readers who may desire information on this subject are referred to Sharp's "Insects," Part I., in the "Cambridge Natural History," where also will be found much interesting and instructive matter connected with the caterpillar and chrysalis, to which stages only brief reference can here be made.