446 NATURAL SCIENGE. JUNE, 1893 
from San José to Mercedes. At one place, Las Piedras, at which the 
diligence stopped, I noticed great numbers of locusts of the species 
Pezotettix vittiger, P. maculipennis, and P. arrogans, which covered 
the ground and rocks. My attention was attracted by the fact of 
seeing around one locust a number of other individuals of the same 
species, which were eating its soft parts even while it was yet alive 
and protesting vigorously. I saw different attacks, in which the 
conquerors, two or three at a time, got hold of the weaker members 
of their own kind, throwing them over, and opening the abdomen 
in order to devour the entrails, these being the softer and more 
savoury portions, since they still contained some of the vegetable 
food. Cannibalism here appeared in its lowest development, and the 
numerous remains of those which had been eaten bore witness to the 
extent to which the process had been carried. 
In the face of facts of this character, it seems certain that nothing 
is sacred in Nature, when the prolongation of life, for the sake of the 
preservation of the species, is concerned. 
CarL BERG. 
