Revision 42564 of "Ovipositor" on enwiki

The '''ovipositor''' is an [[organ (anatomy)|organ]] used by some of the [[arthropod]]s to deposit their [[Egg (biology)|egg]]s.  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 [[insect]]s 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 [[grasshopper]]s to force a burrow in the earth to receive the eggs and by [[cicada]]s to pierce the [[wood]] of twigs for a similar purpose. Both [[long-horned grasshopper]]s and [[sawfly|sawflies]] cut the [[biological tissue|tissue]]s of [[plant]]s 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 [[wasp]]s, [[hornet]]s and [[bee]]s is also an ovipositor, in this case highly modified and associated with [[poison]] [[gland]]s.

Some [[roach]]-like [[fish]], such as [[bitterling]]s, 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]]