ioo TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



multifarious functions of this apparatus, the ampulla. 

 It subsequently serves as a sort of reservoir, by aid of 

 which the insect can diminish the bulk of other parts of 

 the body, and thus after emergence from the capsule, 

 penetrate the narrowest cracks in the soil, so as to reach 

 the surface. As soon as it is there the young Stauro- 

 notus moults ; the ampulla enables it to burst and to get 

 rid of the skin in which it is enveloped. Freed of this 

 pellicle, the young, no longer swaddled, can now make 

 use of their limbs for walking and leaping, and have 

 free use of their antennae and buccal parts. At every 

 moult the cervical ampulla reappears, and plays the 

 leading role at these crises assigned to it. 



But in the process of hatching of the Rocky Mountain 

 Locust, Riley speaks of the feet as playing the principal 

 part. By a continued series of undulating movements, 

 and by the action of the sharp tip of the hind tibial 

 spines, as also of the tarsal claws of all the legs, he finds 

 the egg-shell is ruptured, and the nascent larva soon 

 succeeds in working free therefrom and making its way 

 to the light. Once on the surface of the ground, it rests 

 for a moment, almost motionless. It is soft and limp, its 

 members are still directed backward, and it is yet fettered 

 in the very delicate film or pellicle, which must be cast 

 before the newly-emerged creature can move with free- 

 dom. The skin begins to split, and in from one to five 

 minutes from the time the insect arrives above ground, 



