94 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



go by a race improves a little from time to time, if it 

 struggles. This is an unvarying biological law struggle 

 and trying bring improvement; lack of struggling and trying 

 bring retrogression and degeneracy. Has the grasshopper 

 improved? If we compare a mature grasshopper with its 

 remote ancestors (Figs. 27, 28) there is no gainsaying that it 

 has gone ahead. It has lost the awkward arrangement of 

 legs on each segment of the body and condensed them on 

 the three thoracic segments so that it can turn quickly and 

 easily. The legs are specialized for certain purposes ; wings 

 have developed, improvements have been made in methods 

 of breathing, eating, etc. The ancestral grasshoppers did 

 their work better from day to day, and the race has 

 improved! 



Now, how much has our grasshopper attained? How 

 much ability does it display in adjusting itself to its 

 surroundings? Its structure is highly specialized and 

 admirably adjusted to the life it lives, but its mind is of 

 rather low order. Most of its activities are reflexes or 

 tropisms i.e., they are repeated each time an individual is 

 subjected to the same set of external conditions. A grass- 

 hopper eats when it is hungry, rests when satiated, breeds 

 when ripe, and carries on many other routine activities 

 but does it reason? We must answer, no, for the most part. 

 A grasshopper can make simple adjustments in its behavior 

 to adapt itself to minor changes in its environment, but its 

 reactions are usually stereotyped. If you put one in a 

 tumbler, it bumps its head over and over again in efforts 

 to escape and there is no "intelligent" effort to seek an 

 exit. Yet, notwithstanding the grasshopper's present lowly 

 mental state, we do not know what it may attain in the 

 future. In its discrimination of bright colors and specific 

 songs we can see the first glimmerings of appreciation, 

 satisfaction, pain, and pleasure. 



