The Locusts: their Eggs 



various captives, large and small, were too 

 assiduously watched by me to foil my curi- 

 osity. I know in every case the exact spot 

 where the barrel of eggs lies. The time has 

 come to inspect it. 



The thing is easily discovered, an inch or 

 an inch and a half down, with the point of 

 a knife. Its shape varies a good deal in the 

 different species, but the fundamental struc- 

 ture remains the same. It is always a 

 sheath made of solidified foam, a similar 

 foam to that of the nests of the Praying 

 Mantis. Grains of sand stuck together give 

 it a rough outer covering. 



The mother has not actually made this 

 coarse cover, which constitutes a defensive 

 wall. The mineral wrapper results from the 

 simple infiltration of the product, at first 

 semifluid and viscous, that accompanies the 

 emission of the eggs. The wall of the 

 pocket absorbs it and, swiftly hardening, be- 

 comes a cemented scabbard, without the 

 agency of any special labour on the insect's 

 part. 



Inside, there is no foreign matter, nothing 



but foam and eggs. The latter occupy only 



the lower portion, where they are immersed 



in a frothy matrix and packed one on top 



387 



