The Life of the Grasshopper 



for instance, ought to be able to answer the 

 first question. They make their way inside 

 a tree-trunk, boring galleries by eating the 

 materials of the road which they open. De- 

 tached in tiny fragments by the mandibles, 

 these materials are digested. They pass 

 through the pioneer's body from end to end, 

 yielding up their meagre nutritive elements 

 on the way, and accumulate behind, com- 

 pletely blocking the road which the grub will 

 never take again. The work of excessive 

 division and subdivision, done either by the 

 mandibles or the stomach, causes the digested 

 materials to take up less room than the un- 

 touched wood; and the result is a space in 

 front of the gallery, a chamber in which the 

 grub works, a chamber which is greatly re- 

 stricted in length, giving the prisoner just 

 enough room to move about. 



Can it not be in a similar fashion that the 

 Cicada-grub bores its tunnel? Certainly the 

 waste material flung up as it digs its way 

 does not pass through its body; even if the 

 soil were of the softest and most yielding 

 character, earth plays no part whatever in 

 the larva's food. But, after all, cannot the 

 materials removed be simply shot back as 

 the work proceeds? The Cicada remains 



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