The Life of the Grasshopper 



especially on the caprice of the mother, who 

 concentrates her laying more at one spot and 

 less at another according to her fancy. I 

 have found the average measurement be- 

 tween one hole and the next to be 8 to 10 

 millimetres. 1 



Each of these abrasions is the entrance to 

 a slanting cell, usually bored in the pithy por- 

 tion of the stalk. This entrance is not closed, 

 save by the bunch of ligneous fibres which 

 are parted at the time of the laying but 

 which come together again when the double 

 saw of the ovipositor is withdrawn. At most, 

 in certain cases, but not always, you see 

 gleaming through the threads of this barri- 

 cade a tiny glistening speck, looking like a 

 glaze of dried albumen. This can be only 

 an insignificant trace of some albuminous se- 

 cretion which accompanies the eggs or else 

 facilitates the play of the double boring-file. 



Just under the prick lies the cell, a very 

 narrow passage which occupies almost the 

 entire distance between its pin-hole and that 

 of the preceding cell. Sometimes even there 

 is no partition separating the two; the upper 

 floor runs into the lower; and the eggs, 

 though inserted through several entrances, 



* .31 to .39 inch. — Translator's Note. 

 86 



