FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



work afresh. If I watch her for an hour I see her go 

 through this whole performance, including the short 

 stroll in the neighbourhood, no less than five times. The 

 points where she lays the eggs are always very close 

 together. 



When everything is finished I examine the little pits. 

 The eggs lie singly, without any cell or sheath to protect 

 them. There are about sixty of them altogether, pale 

 lilac-grey in colour, and shaped like a shuttle. 



When I began to observe the ways of the Decticus 

 I was anxious to watch the hatching, so at the end of 

 August I gathered plenty of eggs, and placed them in 

 a small glass jar with a layer of sand. Without suffer- 

 ing any apparent change they spent eight months there 

 under cover, sheltered from the frosts, the showers, and 

 the overpowering heat of the sun, which they would be 

 obliged to endure out of doors. 



When June came, the eggs in my jar showed no sign 

 of being about to hatch. They were just as I had 

 gathered them nine months before, neither wrinkled nor 

 tarnished, but on the contrary wearing a most healthy 

 look. Yet in June young Dectici are often to be met 

 in the fields, and sometimes even those of larger growth. 

 What was the reason of this delay, I wondered. 



Then an idea came to me. The eggs of the Grass- 

 hopper are planted like seeds in the earth, were they are 



