The Life of the Grasshopper 



layings, the site changes, now here, now 

 there, as this or that spot is deemed the more 

 propitious. 



When everything is finished, I examine the 

 little pits in which the Decticus placed her 

 eggs. There are no packets in a foamy 

 sheath, such as the Locust supplies; no cells 

 either. The eggs lie singly, without any pro- 

 tection. I gather three score as the total 

 product of one mother. They are of a pale 

 lilac-grey and are drawn out shuttlewise, in 

 a narrow ellipsoid five or six millimetres 

 long. 1 



The same isolation marks those of the 

 Grey Decticus, which are black; those of the 

 Vine Ephippiger, which are ashen-grey; and 

 those of the Alpine Analota, which are pale- 

 lilac. The eggs of the Green Grasshopper, 

 which are a very dark olive -brown and, like 

 those of the White-faced Decticus, about 

 sixty in number, are sometimes arranged 

 singly and sometimes stuck together in little 

 clusters. 



These different examples show us that the 

 Grasshoppers plant with a dibble. Instead 

 of packing their seeds in little casks of 

 hardened foam, like the Locusts, they put 



1 .195 to .234 inch. Translator's Note, 

 238 



