APPENDIX. 39 



The following- account does not make any claim to contain all or 

 even most of the facts scattered through the enormous mass of 

 entomological literature, and much less all that is privately known 

 by individual entomologists. It must therefore be looked upon as 

 merely a first attempt, a nucleus, around which the principal facts 

 can be gradually collected. It is unnecessary to give any special 

 information as to the duration of larval life, for numerous and exact 

 observations upon this part of the subject are contained in all ento- 

 mological works. 



I. ORTHOPTERA. 



Gryllotalpa. The eggs are laid in June or July, and the young 

 are hatched in from two to three weeks ; they live through the 

 winter, and become sexually mature in the following May or June. 

 ' When the female has deposited her eggs, her body collapses, and 

 afterwards she does not survive much longer than a month.' 

 ' According as the females are younger or older, they live a longer 

 or shorter life, and hence some females are even found in the 

 autumn' (Rosel, ' Insektenbelustigungen,' Bd. II. p. 92). Bosel 

 believes that the female watches the eggs until they are hatched, 

 and this explains the fact that she outlives the process of ovi- 

 position by about a month. It is not stated whether the males die 

 at an earlier period, 



Gryllus campestris becomes sexually mature in May, and sings from 

 June till October, ' when they all die ' (Oken, ' Naturgeschichte,' 

 Bd. II. Abth. iii. p. 1527). It is hardly probable that any single 

 individual lives for the whole summer ; probably, as in the case of 

 Gryttotalpa, the end of the life of those individuals which first 

 become mature, overlaps the beginning of the life of others which 

 reach maturity at a later date. 



Locusta viridissima and L. verrucivora are mature at the end of 

 August ; they lay their eggs in the earth during the first half 

 of September and then die. It is probable that the females do 

 not live for more than four weeks in the mature state. It is not 

 known whether the males of this or other species of locusts live for 

 a shorter period. 



I have found Locusta cantans in plenty, from the beginning of 

 September to the end of the month. In captivity they die after 

 depositing their eggs : the males are probabty more short-lived, for 



