The Life of the Grasshopper 



ripe for mating; and the insect will remain 

 in this undress to the end. 



Is it necessary to add that, with this 

 skimpy jacket, stridulation is impossible? 

 The big hind-thighs are there, it is true; but 

 what is lacking, for them to rub upon, is the 

 grating surface, the edge of the wing-cases. 

 Whereas the other Locusts are not to be de- 

 scribed as noisy, this one is absolutely 

 dumb. In vain have the most delicate ears 

 around me listened with might and main : 

 there has never been the least sound during 

 the three months' home breeding. This si- 

 lent one must have other means of ex- 

 pressing his joys and summoning his partner 

 to the wedding. What are they? I do not 

 know. 



Nor do I know why the insect deprives 

 itself of wings and remains a plodding way- 

 farer, when its near kinsmen, on the same 

 Alpine swards, are excellently equipped for 

 flight. It possesses the germs of wing and 

 wing-case, gifts which the egg gives to the 

 larva; and it does not think of using these 

 germs by developing them. It persists in 

 hopping, with no further ambition ; it is satis- 

 fied to go on foot, to remain a Pedestrian 

 Locust, as the nomenclators call it, when it 



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