132 THE HISTORY OF ACTUALS. [%. T. 



not produced at once, but as soon as they are hatched they 

 leap out and shoot forth a web. If they are bruised 

 they are found to contain a thick white fluid like that of 

 maggots. 



2. The field-spiders first of all deposit their ova in a web, 

 of which one half is attached to themselves, and the other 

 external, they incubate upon this, and produce their 

 young alive. The phalangia deposit their ova in a thick 

 basket which they weave, upon this they incubate. The 

 smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a great 

 many. "When they are grown, they surround their parent 

 in a circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the 

 male in the same way if they can catch him, for he assists 

 the female in incubation. Sometimes there are as many as 

 three hundred round a single phalangium. The little' 

 spiders become full-grown in about four weeks. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



1. LOCUSTS copulate in the same manner as all other in- 

 sects, the smaller mounting upon the larger, for the male 

 is the smaller. They oviposit by fixing the organ which is 

 attached to their taii (the ovipositor) in the ground. The 

 males do not possess this organ. Many of them deposit 

 their ova in one spot, so as to make it appear like a honey- 

 comb. As soon as they have deposited their ova, egg-like 

 maggots are formed, which are covered with a thin coating 

 of earth like a membrane, and in this they are matured. 



2. The young are so soft as to collapse if they are only 

 touched. They are not produced on the surface, but a 

 little below the surface of the soil ; and as soon as they 

 are matured, they escape from the coat of soil in which 

 they are enclosed as small black locusts. Their skin is 

 subsequently ruptured, and they then attain their full size. 

 They produce their young at the end of summer, and then 

 die. 



3. For as soon as they have deposited their ova, small 

 worms make their appearance on their necks, the males also 

 perish at the same time : they come out of the earth in the 

 spring. Locusts never shew themselves in mountainous 

 countries, nor in poor land, but in plains, and broken soil, 

 for they deposit their ova in fissures. The ova remain in 



