FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



while he carries behind him two extraordinary legs, two 

 enormous hinged jumping-poles that would be very in- 

 convenient for ordinary walking. I wished to find out 

 how the feeble little creature set to work, with this 

 cumbrous luggage, to make its way to the surface of the 

 earth. By what means could it clear a passage through 

 the rough soil? With its feathery antennae, which an 

 atom of sand can break, and its immense shanks, which 

 are disjointed by the least effort, this mite is plainly 

 incapable of freeing itself. 



As I have already told you, the Cicada and the 

 Praying Mantis, when issuing, the one from his twig, 

 and the other from his nest, wear a protective covering 

 like an overall. It seemed to me that the little Grass- 

 hopper, too, must come out through the sand in a simpler, 

 more compact form than he wears when he hops about the 

 lawn on the day after his birth. 



Nor was I mistaken. The Decticus, like the others, 

 wears an overall for the occasion. The tiny, flesh-white 

 creature is cased in a scabbard which keeps the six legs 

 flattened against the body, stretching backwards, inert. 

 In order to slip more easily through the soil his shanks 

 are tied up beside him; while the antennas, those other 

 inconvenient appendages, are pressed motionless against 

 the parcel. 



The head is very much bent against the chest. With 

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