THE FOOD OF YOUNG INSECTS 221 



wards, there is one diet on which the development 

 of each creature is dependent, and the higher in the 

 scale we ascend the more specialised as a rule does 

 that nutriment become. When we add to this exigent 

 taste the delicacy of new-born animals, and the 

 penetration of enemies, we see that the choice of 

 nursery is ruled by conditions that confine success in 

 promoting the existence and welfare of each race to 

 a comparatively narrow line of conduct. 



This stringency is, however, a penalty paid for a 

 high and modern place in the insect world. The 

 lower insects, and those of very ancient origin, have 

 more latitude. Nearer than recent conquerors to 

 their ancient home, the soil, the straight-winged 

 insects, field cockroaches, grasshoppers, and crickets 

 lay their eggs in the ground. 



When the young emerge, not as grub-like cater- 

 pillars, which is rather a sign of a recent than of an 

 old family, but as little six-legged miniatures of their 

 parents, these young aristocrats exercise their taste 

 for almost any destructive work, under cover of dark- 

 ness — wood-carving, root-cropping, or mould-eating. 

 Thus, between the old and the new insects, there is a 

 difference from the commencement of life. The old 

 families have to work for their living on coarse fare, 

 the new are provided for and live delicately. 



It is, however, only by the advantages which such 

 forcing gives that the newer families of insects have 

 gained the command of new stations. If they have 

 not the strength, adaptability, and ordered tradition 



