Recently, while photographing bugs in my back yard, I came across a number of eggs. These are some images of the eggs I found.
I immediately wonder whose eggs these were. There were several insects in the area, so I tried a process of elimination.
Ants – It is well known that ants lay their eggs within their colonies, where they are tended to by other ants. They do not leave their eggs just sitting on the ground. Therefore, I felt it safe to assume these were not ant eggs.
Woodlice – According to Wikipedia, woodlice keep the eggs on the upper side of their body. If they are that small, then they are certainly bigger than these eggs. While there were woodlice around where I found these eggs, they don’t fit the bill.
Spiders – Spiders usually keep their eggs either on their underside or in silk bundles called egg sacs. These clearly did not look like spider eggs.
Centipedes – There were a number of centipedes near where I took these shots. The following is a picture of one.
I must admit that I had no idea how the centipede lays its eggs, but after searching Live images I found the following image - http://www.myrmecos.net/amblyopone/centipede.jpg
These eggs looks suspiciously like those in the picture, and I now suspect that the eggs I found are indeed centipede eggs. Unlike the tropical varieties of centipedes, the garden centipedes we have here are harmless to humans so I am not worried by their presence. Still, I am very tempted to set up a terrarium with the eggs to show my kids, but I am afraid I would end up messing something up and the eggs won’t hatch.
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Tags: centipede, egg, macro, nature, photography
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Maybe those are centipede eggs? To be honest, I also have no idea what they are! Amazing photos for sure!
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
This is just a complete guess, but what about snail or slug eggs? I’ve seen round, white eggs that look like this underneath rotting logs and stones that are from . It is a bit hard to really see how big your eggs are though. Anyways, great photos!
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
@Tom - it does seem possible that they are snail or slug eggs. I think I will transplant some eggs to a container and see what hatches.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Interesting. Let us know if anything hatches.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Its slug eggs I hached one before!
April 21st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
My sons just found similar eggs in our back yard. If they hatch I’ll let you know what emerges. Where do you live?