﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 99 



employs whatever muscular force it is capable of to draw out the end 

 of the abdomen and its long hind legs (Fig. 39, c). This in a few more 

 minutes it finally does, and with gait as unsteady as that of a new- 

 dropped colt, it turns round and clambers up by the side of the 

 shrunken cast-ofF skin, and there rests while the wings expand and 

 every part of the body hardens and gains strength — the crooked limbs 

 straightening and the wings unfolding and expanding like the petals 

 of some pale flower. The front wings are at first rolled longitudinally 

 to a point, and as they expand and unroll, the hind wings which are 

 tucked and gathered along the veins, at first curl over them. In ten 

 or fifteen minutes from the time of extrication these wings are fully 

 expanded and hang down like dampened rags (Fig. 39, d). From this 

 point on, the broad hind wings begin to fold up like fans beneath the 

 narrower front ones, and in another ten minutes they have assumed 

 the normal attitude of rest. Meanwhile the pale colors which always 

 belong to the insect while molting have been gradually giving way to 

 the natural tints, and at this stage our new-fledged locust presents an 

 aspect fresh and bright (Fig. 39, e). If now we examine the cast-off 

 skin we shall find every part entire with the exception of the rupture 

 which originally took place on the back; and it would puzzle one 

 who had not witnessed the operation to divine how the now stiff hind 

 shanks of the mature insect had been extricated from the bent skele- 

 ton left behind. They are in fact drawn over the bent knee joint, so 

 that during the process they have been bent double throughout their 

 length. They were as supple at the time as an oil-soaked string, and 

 for some time after extrication they show the effects of this severe 

 bending by their curved appearance. 



The molting, from the bursting of the pupa skin to the full ad- 

 justment of the wings and straightening of the legs of the perfect 

 insect, occupies less than three-quarters of an hour and sometimes 

 but half an hour. It takes place most frequently during the warmer 

 hours of the morning, and within an hour after the wings are once in 

 position the parts have become sufiiciently dry and stiffened to enable 

 the insect to move about with ease, and in another hour, with appe- 

 tite sharpened by long fast, it joins its voracious comrades and tries 

 its new jaws. The molting period, especially the last, is a very critical 

 one, and during the helplessness that belongs to it the unfortunate 

 locust falls a prey to many enemies which otherwise would not molest 

 it, and not unfrequently to the voracity of the more active individuals 

 of its own species. 



As stated a year ago (Rep. 7, p. 123) there are four molts exclu- 

 sive of that which takes place upon leaving the egg. In the first 



