Ovipositor
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The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typically its form is adapted to functions such as preparing a place for the egg, transmitting the egg, and then placing it properly. For most insects, the organ is used merely to attach the egg to some surface, but for many parasitic species, it is a piercing organ as well.
Ovipositor of long-horned grasshopper (the two cerci are also visible)
The process of oviposition in Dolichomitus imperator: 1. Tapping with her antennae, the wasp listens for the vibrations that indicate a host is present 2. With the longer ovipositor, the wasp drills a hole through the bark 3. The wasp inserts the ovipositor into the cavity which contains the host larva 4. Making corrections 5-6. Depositing the eggs
A female fly in the family Tephritidae, with the ovipositor retracted and only the scape showing.
Ovipositing Mexican fruit flies showing the scapes of the extended ovipositors.
Egg
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An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the animal hatches.
Eggs of various birds, a reptile, various cartilaginous fish, a cuttlefish and various butterflies and moths. (Click on image for key)
Six commercial eggs — view from the top against a white background
Salmon eggs in different stages of development. In some only a few cells grow on top of the yolk, in the lower right the blood vessels surround the yolk and in the upper left the black eyes are visible.
Diagram of a fish egg: A. vitelline membrane B. chorion C. yolk D. oil globule E. perivitelline space F. embryo