The Life of the Grasshopper 



gamates instantly with the outer air, she pro- 

 duces foam. 



She whips her product just as we whip 

 white of egg to make it rise and froth. The 

 tip of the abdomen, opening with a long 

 cleft, forms two lateral ladles which meet 

 and separate with a constant, rapid move- 

 ment, beating the sticky fluid and turning it 

 into foam as it is discharged outside. In 

 addition, between the two flapping ladles, 

 we see the internal organs rising and falling, 

 appearing and disappearing, after the 

 manner of a piston-rod, without being able 

 to distinguish their precise action, drowned 

 as they are in the opaque stream of foam. 



The end of the abdomen, ever throbbing, 

 quickly opening and closing its valves, 

 swings from right to left and left to right 

 like a pendulum. The result of each swing 

 is a layer of eggs inside and a transversal 

 furrow outside. As the abdomen advances 

 in the arc described, suddenly and at very 

 close intervals it dips deeper into the foam, 

 as though it were pushing something to the 

 bottom of the frothy mass. Each time, no 

 doubt, an egg is laid; but things happen so 

 fast and under conditions so unfavourable 

 to observation that I never once succeed in 



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