10 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



open at the posterior end of the body. The spermaries 

 produce minute bodies called spermatozoa whose function 

 it is to unite with or fertilize the eggs and thereby render 

 them capable of development. 



The eggs are fertilized before they are laid. In the late 

 summer or fall the female bores with her abdomen a 

 shallow hole in the earth and deposits her mass of eggs 

 which lie there over winter and hatch out in the following 

 summer. The young grasshopper at its first appearance 



FIG. 7. Grasshoppers laying eggs, a, a, a, female in different posi- 

 tions, b, egg pod, c, separate eggs, d, e, earth removed to expose the pods. 

 (After Riley.). 



upon the stage of life is conspicuously different from the 

 adult in several respects; it is small in size, soft bodied, 

 entirely devoid of wings, and provided with a head which 

 seems all out of proportion to its diminutive body. It 

 starts at once on the main business of its early life which is 

 eating, eagerly devouring all sorts of plant life and con- 

 sequently growing rapidly. As a result of its growth the 

 chitinous skin or exoskeleton which is made of compara- 

 tively inelastic and unyielding material becomes too small. 

 Then comes the process of molting or shedding the skin. 



