﻿90 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



between the points d and e, and finally gives way there. It then 

 easily splits up to the eyes or beyond, by the swelling of the head. 



By the same undulating movements the nascent larva soon works 

 itself entirely out of the egg, when it easily makes its way along the 

 channel already described, without in the least interfering with the 

 other eggs, and finally forces a passage-way up through the mucous 

 filling in the neck of the burrow (Fig. 21, d). Once fully escaped 

 from the soil, it rests from its exertions, but for a short time only. Its 

 task is by no means complete : before it can feed or move with alac- 

 rity it must molt a pellicle* which completely encases every part of 

 the body. This it does in the course of three or four minutes, or even 

 less, by a continuance of the same contracting and expanding move- 

 ments which freed it from the earth, and which now burst the skin on 

 the back of the head. The body is then gradually worked from its 

 delicate covering until the last of the hind legs is free and the exu- 

 vium remains, generally near the point where the animal issued from 

 the ground, as a little, white, crumpled pellet. Pale and colorless at 

 first, the full-born insect assumes its dark-gray coloring in the course 

 of half an hour. 



From this account of the hatching process, we can readily under- 

 stand why the female in ovipositing prefers compact or hard soil to 

 that which is loose. The harder and less yielding the walls of the 

 burrow, the easier will the young locust crowd its way out. 



The covering which envelops the little animal when first it issues 

 from the egg, though quite delicate, undoubtedly affords protection 

 in the struggles of birth from the burrow, and it is an interesting fact 

 that while it is shed within a few minutes of the time when the ani- 

 mal reaches the free air, it is seldom shed if, from one cause or other, 

 there is failure to escape from the soil, though the young locust may 

 be struggling for days to effect an escape. 



While yet enveloped in this pellicle, the animal possesses great 

 forcing and pushing power, and if the soil be not too compact, will 

 frequently force a direct passage through the same to the surface, as 

 indicated at the dotted lines, Fig. 21, e. But it can make little or no 

 headway, except through the appropriate channel (c?), where the soil 

 is at all compressed. While crowding its way out, the antennae and 

 four front legs are held in much the same position as within the egg^ 

 the hind legs being generally stretched. But the members bend in 

 every conceivable way, and where several are endeavoring to work 

 through any particular passage, the amount of squeezing and crowd- 

 ing they will endure is something remarkable. Yet if by chance the 



* This pellicle (the ambion) is common to most Orthopterous and Xeuropterous insects. 



