INSECTS: STINGS AND OVIPOSITORS. 185 



to widen and deepen the course, after the finer points have 

 pioneered the way. 



The merry little jumping insects called Froghoppers 

 (Tettigonia), one of which in its larva state emits the little 

 mass of froth so common on shrubs, and called cuckoo- 

 spit, are furnished with a set of tools for their own private 

 carpentry, which, though less elaborate than those of the 

 saw-flies, are worthy of a moment's glance. If we catch 

 one of these vaulters, and gently press the abdomen, we 

 shall see proceeding from its hinder and lower part a 

 thickish piece, large compared with the size of the insect, 

 which it is then easy to extract with a pair of fine- pointed 

 pliers. I have just done this, and here is the result on a 

 slip of glass. 



First, there is a pair of brown protecting pieces, oblong 

 in form, and studded with hairs like the rest of the 

 exterior of the body. From between them projects what 

 resembles a lancet, of the usual translucent amber- coloured 

 horn, appropriated to these instruments (which is to them 

 what steel is to us) ; and this we shall presently dis- 

 cover to be composed of two blades exactly alike, convex 

 without and concave within, applied face to face. One 

 edge of this pair of implements is quite smooth, but the 

 other is cut into the most beautifully regular and most 

 minute teeth. 



This, however, is but the sheath. Within the two 

 spoon-shaped faces there lie two other lancets, blade to 

 blade, still finer and more delicate. Both edges of these 

 blades are of the most perfect keenness, without a flaw ; 

 but their sides appear roughened with rows of very minute 

 horny knobs, like a rasp. 



I shall illustrate this demonstration by another extract 

 from Reaumur, premising, however, that his observations 

 refer to the large species of true Cicada from warmer 

 latitudes, whose machinery seems to differ from that of 

 our little friends in some particulars. For example, the 



