grasshopper 



If I could be a boy again, I'd like to have the 

 jumping strength of a grasshopper. A human 

 who was able to jump as far, proportionately, as 

 this short-horned grasshopper, would clear a 

 fifty-foot bar easily, or could broadjump a dis- 

 tance of two hundred feet. 



The short-horned grasshopper has two power- 

 ful hind legs with knees that tower high above 

 his body. When he jumps, the heavy muscles in 

 these legs propel him into the air with a bound. 

 But although he has strength and speed, he has 

 no way to direct his course. A poor athlete, after 

 all. 



The grasshopper's eggs are laid just below the 

 surface of the ground. With her egg-layer, 

 located at the end of her abdomen, the female 

 bores a hole in the ground, deposits the eggs, 

 and then pours a mass of brownish froth over 

 them. This molasses-like liquid soon hardens 

 into a covering durable enough to protect the 

 eggs throughout the winter. 



As soon as the warm weather arrives, a crop 

 of baby hoppers emerge from the soil as if by 

 magic. As they grow they molt, shedding their 

 hard outer skin to make way for new and larger 

 growth. All summer long grasshoppers feed on 

 green vegetation in the apple tree community. 

 Then in the fall, after the egg-laying season, the 

 cold weather comes, and they die. 



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