46 APPLE TWIGS, LOCUST — ITS WOUNDS OF TREES. 



positor serve as a groove to convey the eggs into this nest. They 

 are placed in pairs side by side, but separated from each other by 

 a portion of woody fibre, and they are fixed into the limb some- 

 what obliquely, so that one end points upwards. When two eggs 

 have been thus placed, the ovipositor is withdrawn for a moment, 

 and is then inserted again, dropping two more eggs in a line with 

 the first; and this operation is repeated until the fissure is filled 

 from one end to the other. The insect then removes a short dis- 

 tance, and commences making another nest, to contain two more 

 rows of eggs. She is occupied about fifteen minutes in making 

 one of these slits and filling it with eggs; and frequently fifteen 

 or twenty of these nests are formed upon one limb. Fifty nests 

 have been counted in one instance, upon a single limb, extending 

 along iu a line, each containing from fifteen to twenty eggs in 

 two rows — the whole appearing to be the work of one insect. 

 After one limb is sufficiently stocked, the insect passes to another. 

 She thus goes from limb to limb and from tree to tree, until her 

 supply of eggs, consisting of four or five hundred, is exhausted. 

 And by her assiduous labors in thus providing for a succession of 

 her kind, she becomes so wearied and weak as to fall to the 

 ground, in attempting to fly, and soon dies. 



From the wounds which are thus made in the limbs, the sap 

 exudes, often profusely. This attracts numerous ants to the spot, 

 to regale themselves upon this sweet fluid. The naturalist, Pon- 

 ^edera, who gave some attention to the operations of the insects of 

 this family, says that when the eggs have been deposited, the 

 insect closes the mouth of the hole with a gum, capable of pro- 

 tecting them from the weather. M. Reaumur thinks this is only 

 a fancy, as he could discover nothing of the kind. But to us it 

 appears quite probable that what Pontedera supposed was a gum 

 which had been deposited by the parent insect, was the dried 

 juice of the twig. 



The fissures which the female makes, in which to deposit her 

 eggs, are not the only wounds which this insect occasions upon 

 the trees. It inserts its sharp beak into the bark foi*the purpose 

 of sucking the sap, this being the nourishment on which the locust 

 subsists. Although some of my correspondents express doubts 



