92 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



and its immense shanks, which are disjointed by the least 

 effort, this mite is plainly incapable of freeing itself. 



As I have already told you, the Cicada and the Praying 

 Mantis, when issuing, the one from his twig, and the other from 

 his nest, wear a protective covering like an overall. It seemed 

 to me that the little Grasshopper, too, must come out through 

 the sand in a simpler, more compact form than he wears when 

 he hops about the lawn on the day after his birth. 



Nor was I mistaken. The Decticus, like the others, wears 

 an overall for the occasion. The tiny, flesh- white creature is 

 cased in a scabbard which keeps the six legs flattened against 

 the body, stretching backwards, inert. In order to slip more 

 easily through the soil his shanks are tied up beside him ; 

 while the antennae, those other inconvenient appendages, are 

 pressed motionless against the parcel. 



The head is very much bent against the chest. With the 

 big black specks that are going to be its eyes, and its inex- 

 pressive, rather swollen mask, it suggests a diver's helmet. 

 The neck opens wide at the back, and, with a slow throbbing, 

 by turns swells and sinks. It is by means of this throbbing 

 protrusion through the opening at the back of the head 

 that the new-born insect moves. When the lump is flat, the 

 head pushes back the damp sand a little way and slips into it 

 by digging a tiny pit. Then the swelling is blown out and 

 becomes a knob which sticks firmly in the hole. This supplies 

 the resistance necessary for the grub to draw up its back and 

 push. Thus a step forward is made. Each thrust of the 

 motor-blister helps the little Decticus upon the upward path. 



It is pitiful to see this tender creature, still almost colourless, 

 knocking with its swollen neck and ramming the rough soil. 

 With flesh that is not yet hardened it is painfully fighting 

 stone ; and fighting it so successfully that in the space of a 

 morning it makes a gallery, either straight or winding, an inch 

 long and as wide as an average straw. In this way the harassed 

 insect reaches the surface. 



Before it is altogether freed from the soil the struggler 



