INFANCY AMONG INSECTS 



297 



Infancy among insects. There is a wide range of egg-laying 

 habits among insects. Some kinds of insects leave the eggs almost 

 anywhere. Others lay the 

 eggs in a material that is 

 likely to furnish food for 

 the young as soon as the 

 eggs hatch. The grasshop- 

 per lays her eggs in the 

 ground and never sees them 

 again. The butterfly lays 

 her eggs on a leaf and, 

 shortly afterwards, dies. 

 The fly deposits eggs in de- 

 caying meat or other or- 

 ganic matter so that food 

 is present for the fly larvae 

 which hatch out of the eggs. 



The elaborate preparation for the laying of eggs of ants, bees, 



wasps, and termites is remark- 

 able. The solitary wasps show 

 great industry and ingenuity in 

 building their nests, in catching 

 caterpillars or spiders, in treating 

 the prey to prevent decay, and 

 in packing these victims into a 

 nest with the eggs. The adults 

 die or fly away shortly after 



In the autumn, the female grasshopper lays completing SUch a nCSt, and they 



fertilized eggs in a hole she digs in the ground. +U * 



These eggs stay in the ground during the winter. nCVCr haVC a ChanCC tO SCC meU* 



The rays from the sun of the late spring warm «» . t o-l™ U «A^l>-.vitT 



the earth and incubate the eggs. Small newly ottspnng. In the DCe COlOUy, 



hatched grasshoppers crawl from the earth. , „„,.^^„Ur^kl-.r t^t»/-» 



the young are remarkably pro- 

 tected. The eggs are laid in certain cells of the hive. When the 

 egg hatches into a minute, footless grub or larva, it is fed for the 



WH. FITZ, AD. BIO. — 20 



The butterfly usually lays her eggs on the food that 

 will be used by the tiny larvae. When the little cater- 

 pillars emerge from the eggs, they begin to eat the 

 leaves upon which they hatched. 



