58 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7 13— Mar., 1911 



velopment of the eggs, for warm days alternated with cold, 

 damp ones, so that there was no apparent change in the eggs 

 for some time. Just as an experiment, one of the twigs was 

 moistened at intervals, to imitate out of door conditions as much 

 as possible, and the other twigs kept dry. 



On Tuesday, May 17, after the close of school, I came to 

 the laboratory for a peep at them, as usual; and to my great 

 delight found three, tiny, green, delicate creatures among the 

 rose-leaves in the tumbler. They seemed to consist almost 

 wholly of legs and antennae, but nothing seemed more beautiful 

 to me at that moment than these tiny living creatures. Examin- 

 ation of the twigs showed that they had hatched from the eggs 

 that had been moistened. The "doors" of the shells through 

 which the katydids had made their exits were oval openings at 

 the end of the egg-shells and were about one-half the length of 

 them. The edge was very clean-cut and the inner lining was 

 beautifully brown, glossy, and irridescent. At this opening 

 each insect had left a small, white, shriveled membrane. They 

 were fed daily with fresh roses and leaves after having been put 

 into a larger glass case. Soon more katydids found their way 

 out of the eggs and all ate heartily and consequentlv grew rap- 

 idly. 



One of the most interesting facts about the katydids was 

 their protective coloring. Later, in the imago state, this is even 

 more pronounced, the wing covers being not only green but also 

 wonderfully veined like leaves. But even the tiny katydids were 

 so well protected against their enemies that it sometimes re^ 

 quired a moment's careful looking before we discovered them 

 among the green leaves. A week after the first katydids had 

 hatched, a sad calamity befell the little company, which was 

 caused, instead. of being averted, by this same protective color- 

 ing. The janitress, in cleaning the laboratory, came upon the 

 glass receptacle full of withered roses, and all unconscious of 

 the little katydids among them, threw them all out with the 

 trash. 



A short time later we were delighted to discover one of 

 them calmly sunning itself on the window-sill, to which place of 

 refuge it had managed to make its escape. Luckily the remaining 

 eggs were also safe; for since the moisture of fhe roses in the 

 covered tumbler had caused the eggs to become mouldy, we 

 had removed the twig to another tumbler. On this same fatal 

 morning the last katydid emerged from the remaining eggs on 

 this twig, and I was fortunate enough to see it still partly within 



