4 ZOOLOGY 



the horny plates at the tip of the abdomen. The eg 

 thirty to one hundred in number, are laid in a mass and 

 covered with a gelatinous secretion. In these holes, an 

 inch or so below the surface of the ground, the eggs pass 

 the winter and hatch out in early summer into young 

 grasshoppers, looking like adults except for their small 

 size and the absence of wings. As they grow larger they 

 moult several times, i.e. cast off their cuticular coverings. 

 After each moult the body is left soft and colorless, but 

 being freed of its hard, tight casement, it is in a condition 

 to grow rapidly. After each moult also the rudimentary 

 wings (wing-pads) become larger, and the relative sizes of 

 the parts of the body change. Just before the last moult 

 the pupa crawls up some vertical object, clutches it firmly 

 with the hind feet, and remains motionless in this position 

 for several hours. Then the cuticula splits along the 

 middle of the back, the head and body inside the cuticula 

 swell, the head emerges from the case, and gradually the 

 entire body works forward out of the old cuticula ; not 

 easily, indeed, but with violent contortions and pullings. 

 The legs and antennae are especially difficult to free ; they 

 can pass out of the joints of the old skin only because 

 they are soft and flabby ; but as soon as they become 

 exposed to the air their surface secretion hardens into a 

 firm covering. The wings are at first rolled up ; they 

 now expand broadly, dry, and then fold up in the way we 

 see them in the adult. 



Allies of the Grasshopper. - The Gryllidae, 1 or crickets 

 (Fig. 1), include cosmopolitan insects that have short, 

 cylindrical bodies and live chiefly in hidden places, such 

 as beneath stones or in holes Avhich they make in the 



1 Name derived from sound made by crickets. 



