The Life of the Grasshopper 



larva ripe for its emergence is hardly able to 

 judge whether the climatic conditions be 

 favourable. Its subterranean weather is too 

 gradual in its changes to be able to supply 

 it with the precise indications necessary for 

 the most important action of its life, its es- 

 cape into the sunlight for the metamorphosis. 



Patiently, for weeks, perhaps for months, 

 it digs, clears and strengthens a perpendi- 

 cular chimney, leaving at the surface, to keep 

 it sequestered from the world without, a 

 layer as thick as one's finger. At the bottom 

 it makes itself a recess more carefully built 

 than the remainder. This is its refuge, its 

 waiting-room, where it rests if its recon- 

 noitring lead it to defer its emigration. At 

 the least suspicion of fine weather, it scram- 

 bles up, tests the exterior through the thin 

 layer of earth forming a lid and enquires into 

 the temperature and the degree of humidity 

 of the air. 



If things do not bode well, if a heavy 

 shower threaten or a blustering storm 

 events of supreme importance when the de- 

 licate Cicada throws off her skin the pru- 

 dent insect slips back to the bottom of the 

 tube and goes on waiting. If, on the other 

 hand, the atmospheric conditions be favour- 

 30 



