THE CYCLE OF LIFE 455 



entirely new creature, the fully -formed moth or butterfly. 

 Two big facts stand out. The first is that the life-history 

 is divided into a feeding growing period and a fasting 

 reproductive period. For the amount that adult Lepidop- 

 tera eat is trivial, and some have mouths that do not open. 

 In no case among the higher insects is there any growth 

 after the adult form is attained. The other big fact is 

 the zig-zagness of the development. It proceeds for a 

 time along a certain path ; it comes to a standstill ; it 

 turns back on itself ; and then it goes ahead once more 

 on a quite different line. 



Fabre has told us many stories in regard to the life 

 and habits of the large plant -bug, called Cigale, famous 

 for its instrumental music and infamous for the Parthian 

 shot of noxious stuff which it delivers on our face as it flies 

 away. The old legend had it that the Cigale who sang 

 in the summer was forced to borrow from the ant when the 

 scarcity of winter came, but the facts are the other way 

 round. When all the world is thirsty in the midsummer 

 drought, the Cigale with its delicate auger broaches the 

 cask of a suitable shrub. ' Plunging her proboscis into 

 the bung-hole, she drinks deliciously, motionless, and wrapt 

 in meditation, abandoned to the charms of syrup and of 

 song '. Many thirsty insects draw to the well, and the 

 aggressive ants, by sheer force of numbers and impudence, 

 succeed in hustling the Cigale away. They then make the 

 most of what is left of sweet sap. 



The eggs of the Cigale are laid about July, in batches 

 in dry twigs, ten or so in each of thirty to forty chambers. 

 In autumn a remarkable primary larva emerges, which 

 Fabre compared to a very minute fish with one fin 

 the first two legs being joined to form the only movable 



