CHAPTER V 



THE CICADA: THE LAYING AND THE 

 HATCHING OF THE EGGS 



THE Common Cicada entrusts her eggs 

 to small dry branches. All those which 

 Reaumur examined and found to be thus 

 tenanted were derived from the mulberry- 

 tree : a proof that the person commissioned 

 to collect these eggs in the Avignon district 

 was very conservative in his methods of 

 search. In addition to the mulberry-tree, I, 

 on the other hand, find them on the peach, 

 the cherry, the willow, the Japanese privet 

 and other trees. But these are exceptions. 

 The Cicada really favours something dif- 

 ferent. She wants, as far as possible, tiny 

 stalks, which may be anything from the 

 thickness of a straw to that of a lead-pencil, 

 with a thin ring of wood and plenty of pith. 

 So long as these conditions are fulfilled, the 

 actual plant matters little. I should have to 

 draw up a list of all the semiligneous flora 

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