64 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



of my prisoners were feeding. Perhaps the shock of 

 reversing the pot detached them. 



It is obvious that underground there is no other 

 nourishment for them than the sap of roots. Adult or 

 larva, the Cigale is a strict vegetarian. As an adult 

 insect it drinks the sap of twigs and branches ; as a 

 larva it sucks the sap of roots. But at what stage does 

 it take the first sip ? That I do not know as yet, but the 

 foregoing experiment seems to show that the newly 

 hatched larva is in greater haste to burrow deep into 

 the soil, so as to obtain shelter from the coming winter, 

 than to station itself at the roots encountered in its 

 passage downwards. 



I replace the mass of soil in the vase, and the six 

 exhumed larvae are once more placed on the surface of 

 the soil. This time they commence to dig at once, and 

 have soon disappeared. Finally the vase is placed in 

 my study window, where it will be subject to the 

 influences, good and ill, of the outer air. 



A month later, at the end of November, I pay the 

 young Cigales a second visit. They are crouching, 

 isolated at the bottom of the mould. They do not 

 adhere to the roots ; they have not grown ; their 

 appearance has not altered. Such as they were at the 

 beginning of the experiment, such they are now, but 

 rather less active. Does not this lack of growth during 

 November, the mildest month of winter, prove that no 

 nourishment is taken until the spring ? 



The young Sitares, which are also very minute, directly 

 they issue from the egg at the entrance of the tubes of 

 the Anthrophorus, remain motionless, assembled in a 

 heap, and pass the whole of the winter in a state of 



