The Life of the Grasshopper 



the nature and the properties of the plant 

 which she adopts as her home. 



I pick the insect out of its froth with the 

 tip of a hair-pencil and place it on some 

 other plant, of an opposite flavour, letting 

 the strong come after the mild, the spicy 

 after the insipid, the bitter after the sweet. 

 The new encampment is accepted without 

 hesitation and soon covered with foam. For 

 instance, a Cicadella taken from the bean, 

 which has a neutral flavour, thrives excel- 

 lently on the spurges, full of pungent milky 

 sap, and particularly on Euphorbia serrata, 

 the narrow notch-leaved spurge, which is one 

 of her favourite dwelling-places. And she 

 is equally satisfied when moved from the 

 highly-spiced spurge to the comparatively 

 flavourless bean. 



This indifference is surprising when we re- 

 flect how scrupulously faithful other insects 

 are to their plants. There are undoubtedly 

 stomachs expressly made to drink corrosive 

 and assimilate toxic matters. The caterpillar 

 of Acherontia atropos, the Death's-head 

 Hawk-moth, eats its fill of potato-leaves, 

 which are seasoned with solanin ; the cater- 

 pillar of the Spurge-moth browses in these 

 parts on the upright red spurge (Euphorbia 

 438 



