FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



crcise at will. It is due to mechanism. It happens 

 of itself. In the same way the Locusts have no in- 

 dustry of their own, especially devised for laying eggs 

 in a keg of froth. The foam is produced with the eggs, 

 and the arrangement of eggs at the bottom and centre, 

 and froth on the outside and the top, is purely 

 mechanical. 



There are many Locusts whose egg-cases have to 

 last through the winter, since they do not open until 

 the fine weather returns. Though the soil is loose and 

 dusty at first, it becomes caked together by the winter 

 rains. Supposing that the hatching takes place a couple 

 of inches below the surface, how is this crust, this hard 

 ceiling, to be broken'? How is the larva to come up 

 from below? The mother's unconscious art has ar- 

 ranged for that. 



The young Locust finds above him, when he comes 

 out of the egg, not rough sand and hardened earth, but 

 a straight tunnel, with solid walls that keep all difficul- 

 ties away. This ascending-shaft is full of foam, which 

 the larva can easily penetrate, and which will bring 

 him quite close to the surface. Here only a finger's- 

 breadth of serious work remains to be done. 



The greater part of the journey, therefore, is ac- 

 complished without effort. Though the Locust's build- 

 ing is done quite mechanically, without the least in- 

 telligence, it is certainly singularly well devised. 



1^40 J 



