24 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



whatever in the quality or the quantity of the sound. The 

 second gun had no more effect than the first. 



I think, after this experiment, we must admit that the 

 Cicada is hard of hearing, and like a very deaf man, is quite 

 unconscious that he is making a noise. 



IV 



THE CICADA'S EGGS 



The Common Cicada likes to lay her eggs on small dry 

 branches. She chooses, as far as possible, tiny stalks, 

 which may be of any size between that of a straw and a 

 lead-pencil. The sprig is never lying on the ground, is 

 usually nearly upright in position, and is almost always 

 dead. 



Having found a twig to suit her, she makes a row of pricks 

 with the sharp instrument on her chest such pricks as might 

 be made with a pin if it were driven downwards on a slant, 

 so as to tear the fibres and force them slightly upwards. If 

 she is undisturbed she will make thirty or forty of these pricks 

 on the same twig. 



In the tiny cells formed by these pricks she lays her eggs. 

 The cells are narrow passages, each one slanting down towards 

 the one below it. I generally find about ten eggs in each cell, 

 so it is plain that the Cicada lays between three and four 

 hundred eggs altogether. 



This is a fine family for one insect. The numbers point 

 to some special danger that threatens the Cicada, and makes 

 it necessary to produce a great quantity of grubs lest some 

 should be destroyed. After many observations I have dis- 

 covered what this danger is. It is an extremely tiny Gnat, 

 compared with which the Cicada is a monster. 



This Gnat, like the Cicada, carries a boring-tool. It is 

 planted beneath her body, near the middle, and sticks out at 

 right angles. As fast as the Cicada lays her eggs the Gnat 



