Why some insect eggs are spherical while others look like hot dogs

A new database is helping scientists test ideas of how the diverse forms have evolved

insect egg shapes

DIFFERENT STARTS  Clockwise from top left, here are eggs of an imperial hairstreak butterfly (​Jamelnus evagoras), a two-spotted cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus), a milkweed bug ​(Oncopeltus fasciatus) and a Hawaiian fly (Drosophila mimica).

S.H. Church and S. Donoughe

Look at the nail of your pinky finger.