THE CIGALE 65 



complete abstinence. The young Cigales apparently 

 behave in a very similar fashion. Once they have 

 burrowed to such depths as will safeguard them from 

 the frosts they sleep in solitude in their winter quarters, 

 and await the return of spring before piercing some 

 neighbouring root and taking their first repast. 



I have tried unsuccessfully to confirm these deductions 

 by observation. In April I unpotted my plant of thyme 

 for the third time. I broke up the mould and spread it 

 under the magnifying-glass. It was like looking for 

 needles in a haystack ; but at last I recovered my little 

 Cigales. They were dead, perhaps of cold, in spite of 

 the bell-glass with which I had covered the pot, or 

 perhaps of starvation, if the thyme was not a suitable 

 food-plant, I give up the problem as too difficult of 

 solution. 



To rear such larvae successfully one would require a 

 deep, extensive bed of earth which would shelter them 

 from the winter cold ; and, as I do not know what roots 

 they prefer, a varied vegetation, so that the little creatures 

 could choose according to their taste. These conditions 

 are by no means impracticable, but how, in the large 

 earthy mass, containing at least a cubic yard of soil, 

 should we recover the atoms I had so much trouble to 

 find in a handful of black soil from the heath ? More- 

 over, such a laborious search would certainly detach the 

 larva from its root. 



The early subterranean life of the Cigale escapes us. 

 That of the maturer larva is no better known. Nothing 

 is more common, while digging in the fields to any 

 depth, to find these impetuous excavators under the 

 spade ; but to surprise them fixed upon the roots which 



A 



