THE NATURAL 



who overwhelms him with her embrace; he gnaws her 

 belly. The male disentangles himself and escapes, but a 

 new assault masters him, he lies flat on his back. This 

 time the female, lifted on her high legs, holds him belly 

 to belly; she bends back the extremity of her abdomen; 

 the victim does likewise; there is junction, and soon one 

 sees something enormous issue from the convulsive flanks 

 of the male, as if the animal were pushing out its entrails. 

 "It is," continues the best observer (Fabre, Souvenirs 

 VI), "an opaline leather bottle about the size and colour 

 of a mistletoe berry," a bottle with four pockets at least, 

 held together by feeble sutures. The female receives this 

 leather bottle, or spermatophore, and carries it off glued 

 to her belly. Having got over the thunder-clap, the male 

 gets up, makes his toilet; the female browses as she walks. 

 "From time to time she rises on her stilts, bends into a 

 ring, seizes her opaline bundle in her mandibles, and 

 chews it gently." She breaks off little pieces, chews them 

 carefully, and swallows them. Thus while the fecun- 

 dative particles are extravasated toward the eggs which 

 they are to animate, the female devours the spermatic 

 pouch. After having tasted it piece by piece she suddenly 

 pulls it off, kneads it, swallows it whole. Not a scrap is 

 lost; the place is clear, and the oviscapte is cleaned, 

 washed, polished. The male has begun to sing again, 

 during this meal, but it is not a love-song, he is about to 

 die; he dies: passing near him at this moment, the female 

 looks at him, smells him, takes a bite of his thigh. 



Fabre was unable to see the mating of the green grass- 

 hopper, which takes place at night, but he observed the 

 long preludes; he has seen the slow play of soft anten- 



122 



