The Life of the Grasshopper 



Instead of a plentiful, lasting, slow-sub- 

 siding foam, like that with which the insect 

 covers itself, all that I obtain is a miserable 

 ring of bubbles, which burst as soon as they 

 appear. And I am equally unsuccessful with 

 the liquid which the Cicadella collects under 

 her abdomen at the start, before working 

 her bellows. What is wrong in each case? 

 The foamy product and its generating liquid 

 shall tell us. 



The first is oily to the touch, gummy and 

 as fluid as, for instance, a weak solution of 

 albumen would be; the second flows as read- 

 ily as plain water. The Cicadella therefore 

 does not draw from her well a liquid liable 

 to effervesce merely by the action of the blow- 

 pocket; she adds something to what oozes 

 from the puncture, adds a viscous element 

 which gives cohesion and makes frothing pos- 

 sible, even as a boy adds soap to the water 

 which he blows into iridescent bubbles 

 through a straw. 



Where then does the insect keep its soap- 

 works, its manufactory of the effervescent 

 element? Evidently in the blow-pocket Itself. 

 It is here that the intestine ends and here 

 that albuminous products, furnished either 

 by the digestive canal or by special glands, 



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