446 NATURAL SCIENCE. June. 1893 



from San Jose to Mercedes. At one place, Las Piedras, at which the 

 diligence stopped, I noticed great numbers of locusts of the species 

 Pezotettix vittigcr, P. macnlipennis, and F. arrcgans, which covered 

 the ground and rocks. My attention was attracted by the fact of 

 seeing around one locust a number of other individuals of the same 

 species, which were eating its soft parts even while it was yet ali\e 

 and protesting vigorously. I saw different attacks, in which the 

 conquerors, two or three at a time, got hold of the weaker members 

 of their own kind, throwing them over, and opening the abdomen 

 in order to devour the entrails, these being the softer and more 

 savoury portions, since they still contained some of the vegetable 

 food. Cannibalism here appeared in its lowest development, and the 

 numerous remains of those which had been eaten bore witness to the 

 extent to which the process had been carried. 



In the face of facts of this character, it seems certain that nothing 

 is sacred in Nature, when the prolongation of life, for the sake of the 

 preservation of the species, is concerned. 



Carl Berg. 



