120 PEPACTON 



the favorable report which the surveyors had made. 

 These were dug by the larger hornets or females. 

 There was but one inhabitant in each hole, and the 

 holes were two to three feet apart. One that we 

 examined had nine chambers or galleries at the end 

 of it, in each of which were two locusts, or eighteen 

 in all. The locusts of the locality had suffered 

 great slaughter. Some of them in the hole or den 

 had been eaten to a mere shell by the larvae of the 

 hornet. Under the wing of each insect an egg is 

 attached; the egg soon hatches, and the grub at 

 once proceeds to devour the food its thoughtful 

 parent has provided. As it grows it weaves itself 

 a sort of shell or cocoon, in which, after a time, it 

 undergoes its metamorphosis, and comes out, I think, 

 a perfect insect toward the end of summer. 



I understood now the meaning of that sudden cry 

 of alarm I had so often heard proceed from the 

 locust or cicada, followed by some object falling 

 and rustling amid the leaves ; the poor insect was 

 doubtless in the clutches of this arch enemy. A 

 number of locusts usually passed the night on the 

 under side of a large limb of a mulberry-tree near 

 by : early one morning a hornet was seen to pounce 

 suddenly upon one and drag it over on the top of 

 the limb; a struggle ensued, but the locust was 

 soon quieted and carried off. It is said that the 

 hornet does not sting the insect in a vital part, — 

 for in that case it would not keep fresh for its 

 young, — but introduces its poison into certain ner- 

 vous ganglia, the injury to which has the effect of 



