8 THE JOLA OR DECCAN GRASSHOPPER 
the grassy strips bordering them. Egg-laying, however, 
takes place most commonly in those places where the soil 
is most easily penetrated. The result is that, in the fields, 
the great majority of burrows are made in the bottoms or 
sides of the cracks which are so abundant in black soil at 
this time of the year. Through these cracks the grasshop- 
per is able to get down into those portions of the soil which 
still retain a fair amount of moisture much more readily 
than they could by boring directly down through the top. 
Other favorite spots are the demarcation mounds which 
are freshly heaped up every year and on which numerous 
cracks develop. The egg-laying on grassy strips and patches 
seems, on the whole, to be much less general, for here the 
soil is very hard and the cracks are comparatively few in 
number. Not infrequently egg-laying takes place at the 
bases of the numerous bushes, especially tangadi (Cassa 
auriculata), found scattered over grassy areas. Here too, 
the female grasshopper can more easily burrow down into 
the soil. 
On red soil areas, comparatively few cases of oviposi- 
tion have been observed and these have been observed in- 
variably at the bases of plants growing in the fields. Thus 
a number of females were observed burrowing at the bases 
of pigeon pea (Cajanus indicus) plants, the ‘posterior end 
of the body being thrust down close to the base of the 
stem. ‘I'he upper layers of the red soil are, at this time of 
the year, extremely hard so that boring would be a very 
difficult matter for such a comparatively feeble insect as 
this grasshopper. No cases of oviposition in red soil 
outside of those mentioned have as yet been observed. 
The process of burrowing is very similar to that 
occurring in the case of other erasshoppers. A striking 
feature is, however, the position which the grasshopper 
occupies during the process. ‘The abdomen is thrust 
down in a slightly oblique to almost perpendicular direc- 
tion. There is practically no bending of the abdomen, the 
whole body being kept almost in a straight line. In cases 
where the boring takes place in cracks of the soil, when 
the body is sunk to the full depth, it may lie almost com- 
pletely in the crack below the surface of the soil, the 
antenne alone projecting above the surface. The hind 
legs are drawn up so that the femora touch the body while, 
in turn, the tibiz are closely approximated to them. The 
