The Locusts: the last Moult 



paratory and the ultimate stage before our 

 eyes at the same time: the larva's pinion is 

 not merely a mould which elaborates the ma- 

 terial in its own image and shapes the wing- 

 case upon the model of its hollow. No, the 

 membrane which we are expecting is not yet 

 inside in the form of a bundle which, when 

 unfurled, will astonish us with the size and 

 the extreme complexity of its texture. Or, 

 to be accurate, it is there, but in a potential 

 state. Before becoming a real thing, it is 

 a virtual thing, which is nothing as yet, but 

 which is capable of becoming something. It 

 is there just as much as the oak is inside its 

 acorn. 



A fine, transparent rim binds the free edge 

 both of the embryo wing and the embryo 

 wing-case. Under a powerful lens we can 

 see a few uncertain outlines of the future 

 lacework. This might well be the factory 

 in which life intends to set its materials 

 going. There is nothing else visible, nothing 

 to suggest the prodigious network whose 

 every mesh will shortly have its form and 

 place determined for it with geometrical 

 precision. 



There must therefore be something better 

 and greater than a mould to make the or- 



419 



