58 On the Locust of North- America. 



the female, the sexes are held together, for a long 

 time ; for there are a great many eggs to impregnate. 

 I think each individual copulates but once. 



I killed two of them in the beginning of the act, 

 and was surprised, that the agonies of death did not 

 part them, though they had been a quarter of an hour 

 together. 



Soon after copulation, they begin to dart the twigs, 

 and lay their eggs, to a great number. It is sur- 

 prising how soon they will work into the solid wood, 

 and crowd it full of eggs, arranged close together, 

 with one end close to the solid wood. How they 

 directed the eggs in such order, I was puzzled to 

 know ; for they seemed so shy, that when I came 

 near enough to observe, they would fly away. One 

 day, however, my son caught one of them in the be- 

 ginning of this operation, and taking a strong stalk 

 of a weed, presented it to her. She directly fell to 

 work, while he held the stalk in his hand. He care- 

 fully observed how she worked her dart into the stalk, 

 and found, that she did not touch it, all the time, with 

 her belly*. He- permitted her to dart two or three 

 places, and then searched and found, that she had laid 

 eight or nine eggs. He, therefore, concluded, that 

 she must convey the eggs into the stalk, through her 

 dart, which we have alw ays found to be hollow. 



* It is certain] however, that sometimes she does push her dart 

 so far into the twig, as to touch the latter with her belly- This I 

 have particularly observed, while one of these insects was deposit- 

 ing her eggs in a branch of the Lombardy Poplar. Editor. 



