The Life of the Grasshopper 



have to beware when I handle the creature, 

 possess no other function than to chew soft 

 grains? Can a mill like this have only to 

 grind little unripe seeds? Something has 

 escaped me. So well-armed with mandibular 

 pincers, so well-endowed with masticatory 

 muscles that swell out his cheeks, the Dec- 

 tlcus must cut up some leathery prey. 



This time I find the real diet, the funda- 

 mental if not the exclusive one. Some good- 

 sized Locusts are let Into the cage. I put in 

 it the species mentioned in a note below,^ 

 now one, now the other, as they happen to 

 get caught in my net. A few Grasshoppers ' 

 are also accepted, but not so readily. There 

 is every reason to think that, if I had had 

 the luck to capture them, the entire Locust 

 and Grasshopper family would have met the 

 same fate, provided that they were not too 

 insignificant in size. 



Any fresh meat tasting of Locust or 

 Grasshopper suits my ogres. The most fre- 

 quent victim is the Blue-winged Locust. 



* CEdipoda coerulescens, LiN. ; CE. miniata, Pallas; 

 Sph'mgmzotns ccrulans, LiN. ; Caloptenus italicus, Lin.; 

 Pachytyhis nigrofasciatus, DE Geer; Truxalis nasuta, 

 Lin. — Author's Note. 



' Corwrpf:alus inandibnlaris, Charp. ; Platycleis inter- 

 media, Serv. ; Ephippigea mtium, Serv. — Author's Note. 



214 



