The Life of the Grasshopper 



eggs confided to stalks that are still alive, 

 with green leaves and flowers in bloom. It 

 is true that, in these highly exceptional 

 cases, the stalk itself is of a pretty dry 

 variety. 1 



The work performed by the Cicada con- 

 sists of a series of pricks such as might be 

 made with a pin if it were driven downwards 

 on a slant and made to tear the ligneous 

 fibres and force them up slightly. Any one 

 seeing these dots without knowing what pro- 

 duced them would think first of some cryp- 

 togamous vegetation, some Sphasriacea 

 swelling and bursting its skin under the 

 growth of its half-emerging perithecia. 



If the stalk be uneven, or if several Cicadae 

 have been working one after the other at 

 the same spot, the distribution of the punc- 

 tures becomes confused and the eye is apt to 

 wander among them, unable to perceive 

 either the order in which they were made 

 or the work of each individual. One char- 

 acteristic is never missing, that is the slanting 

 direction of the woody strip ploughed up, 

 which shows that the Cicada always works 

 in an upright position and drives her imple- 



1 Calamintha nepeta, Hirschfeldia adpressa. Author's 

 Note. 



84 



