In such cases the series of apertures follows a spiral curve.

The insect turns round the stalk as the sun turns.
Very often as the Cigale is absorbed in her maternal task a diminutive fly, also full of eggs, busily exterminates the Cigale's eggs as fast as they are laid.
This insect was known to Reaumur.

In nearly all the twigs examined he found its grub, the cause of a misunderstanding at the beginning of his researches.

But he did not, could not see the audacious insect at work.
It is one of the Chalcididae, about one-fifth or one-sixth of an inch in length; entirely black, with knotty antennae, which are slightly thicker towards their extremities.

The unsheathed ovipositor is implanted in the under portion of the abdomen, about the middle, and at right angles to the axis of the body, as in the case of the Leucospis, the pest of the apiary.