Gynecology Sexual anatomy

Ovipositor Wikipedia

The ovipositor is an organ (anatomy)|organ used by some of the arthropods for oviposition, i.e. the laying of Egg (biology)|eggs. It consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages formed to transmit the egg, to prepare a place for it, and to place it properly. In some of the insects the organ is used merely to attach the egg to some surface, but in many parasite|parasitic species (Hymenoptera, for example) it is a piercing organ as well. It is used by the grasshoppers to force a burrow in the earth to receive the eggs and by cicadas to pierce the wood of twigs for a similar purpose. Both long-horned grasshoppers and symphyta|sawflies cut the biological tissue|tissues of plants by means of the ovipositor. None of these examples is quite as remarkable as the Megarhyssa species of Ichneumon wasp (parasitic Hymenoptera), the females of which have a slender ovipositor several inches long, used to drill into the wood of tree trunks. These species are parasitic in the larva|larval stage on the larvae of wood-boring insects, hence the egg must be deposited in the burrow of the host.

The sting (biology)|sting of wasps, hornets and bees is also an ovipositor, in this case highly modified and associated with poison glands.

Some roach-like fish, such as bitterlings, have an ovipositor as a tubular extension of the genital orifice in the breeding season for depositing eggs in the mantle cavity of the pond mussel.

Category:Entomology
Category:Reproductive system
Category:Sexual anatomy

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Last Modified:   2005-12-19