The Locusts: their Eggs 



mother's work, the greater number would 

 succumb. 



It is true that the Grasshoppers, similarly 

 equipped, find it even more difficult to make 

 their way out of the earth. Their eggs are 

 laid naked in the ground; no outward pass- 

 age is prepared for them beforehand. We 

 may assume, therefore, that the mortality 

 must be very high among these improvident 

 ones ; legions are bound to perish at the time 

 of the exodus. 



This is confirmed by the comparative 

 scarcity of Grasshoppers and the extreme 

 abundance of Locusts. And yet the number 

 of eggs laid is about the same in both cases. 

 The Locust does not, in fact, limit herself 

 to a single casket containing a score of eggs : 

 she puts into the ground two, three and 

 more, which gives a total population ap- 

 proaching that of the Decticus and other 

 Grasshoppers. If, to the greater delight of 

 the consumers of small game, she thrives so 

 well, whereas the Grasshopper, who is quite 

 as fertile but less ingenious, dwindles, does 

 she not owe it to that superb invention, her 

 exit-turret ? 



One last word upon the tiny insect which, 

 for days on end, fights away with its cervical 



399 



