Page 92 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide

2
EGGS Eggs
suspended in
a silk cocoon

6
From cockroaches to cuckoos, many different
types of animals lay eggs. Inside the egg, a young Cave spider
animal grows and develops, nurtured by its own
food supply, until it is ready to hatch. Some animals
lay a few eggs and look after them. Others lay lots
of eggs and leave them to develop on their own.

3

Leopard Cockroach
tortoise Dogfish

eggs
Egg purse
1
Pattern of cuckoo’s Yolk sac
egg resembles its feeds
host’s eggs developing
dogfish

1 TORTOISE Fish eggs
Found in South Africa, female leopard
tortoises lay a clutch of five to thirty
soft-shelled eggs under the soil. Young
tortoises use a special tooth to break
through the shell, before they burrow
upward and emerge on the soil’s surface. Cuckoo egg

2 SPIDER
Silk is used by spiders to make a protective
cocoon around their eggs. This female cave
spider is suspending her bag of eggs over Soft-shelled
rat snake’s egg
an overhanging ledge. After hatching, some 4
of the spiderlings may eat each other before
they can escape and go in search of food. 5

3 COCKROACH
During its two-year life span, a female cockroach
can lay up to 1,000 eggs. Batches of around 15 eggs Host nest
are contained in tough protective capsules called
egg purses. The female cockroach carries the egg
purse for a period before sticking it to a concealed
surface, where the eggs later hatch.

4 CUCKOO
A female cuckoo lays her egg in the nest of another bird, Rat snake 5 SNAKE
where it is incubated by the unaware host bird.
Most snakes lay soft-shelled eggs, which they then
The newly hatched cuckoo pushes any
abandon. The developing snake feeds on the yolk,
other eggs out of the nest to make
Rat snake emerging cushioned within a bag of fluid, and receives oxygen
sure it gets all the food for itself. from its egg absorbed through its eggshell. When ready, the
snake hatches by slashing open the shell using a
90 special egg tooth.

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