The Life of the Grasshopper 



the dirty white of the remainder of the nest. 

 It is like the composition which confectioners 

 make out of whipped white of egg, sugar 

 and starch, with which to ornament their 

 cakes. This snowy covering is very easily 

 crumbled and removed. When it is gone, the 

 exit-zone is clearly defined, with its two rows 

 of plates with free edges. The weather, the 

 wind and the rain sooner or later remove it 

 in strips and flakes; and therefore the old 

 nests retain no traces of it. 



At the first inspection, one might be 

 tempted to look upon this snowy matter as 

 a different substance from the remainder of 

 the nest. But can it be that the Mantis 

 really employs two different products? By 

 no means. Anatomy, to begin with, assures 

 us of the unity of the materials. The organ 

 that secretes the substance of the nest con- 

 sists of twisted cylindrical tubes, divided into 

 two sections of twenty each. All are filled 

 with a colourless, viscous fluid, exactly similar 

 in appearance wherever we look. There is 

 nowhere any sign of a product with a chalky 

 colouring. 



The manner in which the snowy ribbon is 

 formed also makes us reject the theory of 

 different materials. We see the Mantis' two 

 156 



