MORSE: ORTHOPTERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 229 
the surface of the ground. This provides an easily excavated 
pathway by which the tender, newly hatched larvae can struggle 
to the surface. 
The eggs are cylindrical, tapering to rounded ends, and a little 
curved, the concave side being ventral in position. They are 
arranged in the mass with a considerable degree of regularity in 
about four longitudinal rows, and are placed somewhat obliquely, 
the head end of the embryo being highest and nearest the path- 
way of escape. At hatching-time the weakened egg-shell bursts 
under the struggles of the enclosed larva, and splits along the 
ventral side. The larva (or nymph), enclosed in a thin pellicle 
(amnion), works its way out of the egg-shell by a series of undula- 
tory movements, and along the pathway provided by the neck of 
the egg-pod, which offers but little resistance, or even directly 
through the earth if not too firm, upward to the surface of the 
ground. Here the pellicle is quickly ruptured by its struggles, 
cast off, and left behind as a white, crumpled shred of tissue which 
has served as a protection during the escape of the larva from 
the soil. 
The newly hatched insect is pale and colorless but soon darkens, 
becoming mottled with gray and brown. It differs from the 
parent in size, in the total lack of wings, and somewhat in the 
proportions of the head and body, but is at once distinguishable 
as a Locust. Its growth to the adult state is accomplished by a 
series of steps or stages during which it feeds voraciously. These 
stages are separated by periodic molts of the chitinous exoskele- 
ton which is too inelastic to permit of growth and must be got 
rid of. At the time of molting, it increases rapidly in size before 
the body-wall becomes rigid. At each molt there is also a decided 
increase in the size of the developing wings and tegmina. The 
size and form of these serve admirably to distinguish the various 
stages, of which there are five, the series closing with the sixth 
stage or adult form, which the insect retains till death. 
In the first stage not even the rudiments of tegmina and wings 
can be seen. After the first molt a slight enlargement of the 
posterior ventral angles of the mesonotum and metanotum may 
be noticed. This increases with the second molt so that a con- 
siderable prolongation downward and backward of these angles is 
evident in the third stage. In the fourth stage the rudiments of 
