LIFE-HISTORY OF GRASSHOPPER 



227 



effort the forepart of the body is drawn out of its old 

 envelope. Then follows the disclosure of the abdomen, 

 and the old skin is wholly discarded. The young 

 grasshopper is now soft and helpless. Its new skin, 

 more brilliant than the old one, is wet ; its muscles 

 fatigued. For a while, therefore, it lies waiting for its 

 heart-beat to become steady, its skin to harden, and 

 its muscles to resume their tone. 



A comparison of the old skin with the new one 

 reveals certain differences between the two. Not only 

 are the colours brighter than before, but rudiments 

 of wings are now disclosed. At each successive moult 

 of the grasshopper both the size of the animal and 

 of the wings increase, until, at the final change, the 

 spread of wing can sustain the body for short flights. 

 The development is therefore a gradual one. Each 

 stage has been gradually accumulating under the 

 covering of the previous one. As there is no violent 

 break in structural development, so there is no change 

 of habits till the first flight is made. Old and young 

 live under similar conditions, and probably upon the 

 same vegetarian diet. The wings are chiefly used to 

 carry the grasshoppers into new districts where they 

 may found fresh colonies. 



The life-history of the grasshopper is one typical of 

 the vast and ancient order to which it belongs. This 

 order — the Orthoptera — is to other insects what the 

 rodents are to other mammals. They share our dark 

 corners and produce with mice and rats ; they gnaw 

 the herbage with the field mice and voles. They 



