The Cicada: the Eggs 



the operation. She moves as little as need 

 be, shifting her place only just enough to 

 avoid letting two adjoining cells encroach 

 upon each other. The measure of the up- 

 ward movement is provided approximately 

 by the length of the bore. 



Also the holes are arranged in a straight 

 line when their number is not great. Why 

 indeed should the laying mother veer to the 

 left or right on a stalk which has the same 

 qualities all over? Loving the sun, she has 

 selected the side of the stalk that is most 

 exposed to it. So long as she feels on her 

 back a douche of heat, her supreme joy, she 

 will take good care not to leave the situation 

 which she considers so delightful for another 

 upon which the sun's rays do not fall so 

 directly. 



But the laying takes a long time when it is 

 all performed on the same support. Allow- 

 ing ten minutes to a cell, the series of forty 

 which I have sometimes seen represents a 

 period of six to seven hours. The sun there- 

 fore can alter its position considerably before 

 the Cicada has finished her work. In that 

 case the rectilinear direction becomes bent 

 into a spiral curve. The mother turns 

 around her stalk as the sun itself turns ; and 



9i 



