The Life of the Grasshopper 



are mirrors, it is true, but insignificant ones, 

 measuring scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch. 

 In short, the mechanism of sound, which is so 

 highly developed in the Common Cicada, is 

 very rudimentary here. How then does the 

 thin clash of the cymbals manage to gain in 

 volume until it becomes intolerable ? 



The Ash Cicada is a ventriloquist. If we 

 examine the abdomen by holding it up to the 

 light, we see that the front two thirds are 

 translucent. Let us snip off the opaque third 

 part that retains, reduced to the strictly 

 indispensable, the organs essential to the 

 propagation of the species and the preserva- 

 tion of the individual. The rest of the belly 

 is wide open and presents a spacious cavity, 

 with nothing but its tegumentary walls, ex- 

 cept in the case of the dorsal surface, which 

 is lined with a thin layer of muscle and serves 

 as a support to the slender digestive tube, 

 which is little more than a thread. The 

 large receptacle, forming nearly half of the 

 insect's total bulk, is therefore empty, or 

 nearly so. At the back are seen the two 

 motor pillars of the cymbals, the two mus- 

 cular columns arranged in a V. To the 

 right and left of the point of this V gleam 

 the two tiny mirrors ; and the empty space is 

 68 



