The Cicada: the Eggs 



room for those behind. This necessitates 

 the smooth, boatlike form, devoid of all pro- 

 jections, which makes its way insinuatingly, 

 like a wedge. The primary larva, with its 

 different appendages closely fixed to its body 

 inside a common sheath, with its boat shape 

 and its single oar possessing a certain power 

 of movement, has its part to play : its business 

 is to emerge into daylight through a difficult 

 passage. 



Its task is soon done. Here comes one of 

 the emigrants, showing its head with the 

 great eyes and lifting the broken fibres of the 

 aperture. It works its way farther and far- 

 ther out, with a progressive movement so 

 slow that the lens does not easily perceive it. 

 In half an hour at soonest, the boat-shaped 

 object appears entirely; but it is still caught 

 by its hinder end in the exit-hole. 



The emergence-jacket splits without fur- 

 ther delay; and the creature sheds its skin 

 from front to back. It is now the normal 

 larva, the only one that Reaumur knew. The 

 cast slough forms a suspensory thread, ex- 

 panding into a little cup at its free end. In 

 this cup is contained the tip of the abdomen 

 of the larva, which, before dropping to the 

 ground, treats itself to a sun-bath, hardens 

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