The Life of the Grasshopper 



result of quick desiccation, it preserves with- 

 out change the attitude which it had at the 

 start. It forms the pivot for what is about 

 to follow. 



Fixed to his slough by the tip of the 

 abdomen, which is not yet extracted, the 

 Cicada turns over perpendicularly, head 

 downwards. He is pale-green, tinged with 

 yellow. The wings, until now compressed 

 into thick stumps, straighten out, unfurl, 

 spread under the rush of the liquid with 

 which they are gorged. When this slow 

 and delicate operation is ended, the Cicada, 

 with an almost imperceptible movement, 

 draws himself up by sheer strength of loin 

 and resumes a normal position, head up- 

 wards. The fore-legs hook on to the empty 

 skin ; and at last the tip of the belly is drawn 

 from its sheath. The extraction is over. 

 The work has required half an hour alto- 

 gether. 



Here is the whole insect, freed from its 

 mask, but how different from what it will be 

 presently! The wings are heavy, moist, 

 transparent, with their veins a light green. 

 The prothorax and mesothorax are barely 

 tinged with brown. All the rest of the body 

 is pale-green, whitish in places. It must 



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