The ovipositor, a pair of basal plates and three pairs of elongate bladelike structures, generally is used to pierce or drill slots in plant tissue for oviposition. The ovipositor is attached to the abdomen of insects and the eggs pass down the tube. In parasitoids the ovipositor can be used to pierce the skin of another animal, such as a caterpillar, and the egg of รขโ‚ฌยฆ

In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. Read more cicada life cycle a female cicada crawls along a tree branch, looking for a thin outer branch. She just mated with a male cicada, and her eggs are ready for laying. She finally finds the รขโ‚ฌยฆ In its ancestral condition, the ovipositor is composed of two pairs of elongated appendages, the gonapophyses or ovipositor valves, associated with the seventh and eighth abdominal segments.

In its ancestral condition, the ovipositor is composed of two pairs of elongated appendages, the gonapophyses or ovipositor valves, associated with the seventh and eighth abdominal segments.